New Every Morning, episode 96

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast. And also help and hope for your own life journey. Today we continue our look at mercy. God's mercy that he wants to pour out on us and into us and have it flow through us. As always, I encourage you to jot down what you hear from God or anything you want to look into more or try to apply. If you're like me, if I don't write it down, it's gone later. So I really encourage you to do that. First I want to just share with you some kind of personal reflections that have really helped me in understanding who God is and what he's like. Now I love words. I love discovering and using new words that I didn't know. They're like treasures to find and share. Sometimes I take sneaky pleasure in using words I don't think people will know. That's a true confession. I don't do it often. I have no artistic or musical gifts. I have conversations with the Lord about that sometimes. Math and science escape me. Engineering is incomprehensible to my

1:35 mind. But words, oh my goodness, I can tell a story. I can weave a dream. I can preach a sermon. I did that last weekend. Some of my favorite words are used to describe my God and how he feels about me and you. So here's some great words that let us know how God looks at us. The first is reckless love. They called the Son of God from heaven to become the Son of Man on earth. Reckless love. Furious longing for me, to know me, to be with me, to love me, and true for you as well and for your loved prodigal. Relentless pursuit that never gives up seeking to find and woo and win each of us, all of us, including those much loved wanderers.

2:42 Lavish generosity that gave it all and continues to give and give. We have been so gifted. Extravagant grace that flows over and in every crevice of my life and your life enables us to live through this wilderness journey with our prodigals but never runs dry or quits running after us or after our very loved wanderers, prodigals, the one who causes us so much pain. God is chasing after them. Scandalous sacrifice that God would die in our place, that we might live with him forever. Truly unimaginable. And then what we're talking about here, outrageous mercy that forgives the guilt of all the sins of one so reprehensible and unworthy as I am and as you are. Mercy for you and for your loved one. Our God loves mercy. I am undone by this God. It puts me on my face indefinitely, inadequately, always grateful for all that God has given me, done for me, and

4:16 that he applies that to my prodigal as well. So think a minute, what are your favorite words to describe God? What has he whispered in your ear as you cry out for your prodigal? For wisdom, for courage, for strength, whatever you need in this journey. What's he saying to you? In a world full of vengeance, our God offers mercy and forgiveness. Whether or not you love a prodigal, most of my listeners probably do, but maybe some don't, surely you desire more mercy in your life. So let me ask you a question. How many tears do you think you've shed for your loved one, your prodigal? You have loved, provided, encouraged, you have fed and clothed, trained and taught, loved and lectured. I'm sure you've done a lot of lecturing. Reprimanded and reproved. You have fallen to your knees and on your face before the Lord. You have seen them go and waited for them to return. So you can identify at least a little with how our God feels for us, for all the

5:47 prodigals in the world. He's pursuing them. He has this amazing love that he's talked about. Reckless love. He has a furious longing for them. He's relentless in his pursuit, lavishing the generosity of his life. Such grace extravagant grace. Made a scandalous sacrifice and the outrageous mercy that he's poured on us. So you can identify at least a little with our God. His children, his nation, his people, the children of Israel. He built them up, provided mana and quail and water for them in the wilderness. He gave them victory after victory as they went into the promised land. He led them to the promised land and into it. What did he ask for in return? That they would love him and obey the laws that he established which were for their flourishing and their freedom.

6:57 So even in the boundaries, the laws that he set, the purpose was flourishing and freedom. And he did that over and over. Yet, century after century, the children of Israel turned from him, abandoned his laws, loved other gods. I imagine he wept many tears. We know that Jesus knew how to weep. So we come to the book of Lamentations, a book of laments over the destruction of Jerusalem and the enslavement of God's children and a book of many tears. Lamentations has usually been attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, the weeping prophet for good reason. The lamenter bewails the loss, the terror, the death and destruction, acknowledging that God had every right to bring the Babylonians against them in return for their choices. So let me read the few verses, just a few of the verses. It's a book of several chapters but a few verses that represent the pain and sorrow described throughout Lamentations. He has brought unending sorrow and tears upon beautiful Jerusalem. I have cried until the tears no longer come. My heart is

8:32 broken. My spirit is poured out in agony as I see the desperate plight of my people. What can I say about you? Who has ever seen such sorrow, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I compare your anguish? O virgin daughter of Zion, how can I comfort you? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you? Again, it's the result of centuries of turning from God, chasing other gods, not doing what he asked, not being grateful for what he's given, just wanting to go their own way. We're kind of familiar with that, aren't we? But then Jeremiah the prophet suddenly, abruptly switches from his lament of what has happened to the children of Israel to words of hope and restoration, words of mercy. He says the faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness. His mercies began afresh each morning. I say to myself, the prophet says, the Lord is my inheritance, therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is

10:07 good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him, so it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord. These are the words of our God for his rebellious people and they are the words that we can have for our rebellious loved ones. Words like these, I love you. I always have and I always will. I am faithful and my mercy is forever. New every morning. That means if so you repented that afternoon after receiving mercy from the Lord and you were seeking to do well but by the nighttime you'd already made some other mistakes or choices. Every morning there's new mercy. He says I am all that you need. You can hope in me. I will be good to you even as you search for me in all the wrong places, which as we know our loved ones, our prodigals often do. God knows, he hears our cries, he sees and saves our tears. So do you think he has big enough bottles that he's saving our tears in? I've cried an awful lot lately. He's been there. He's wept over his people. So yes, we can lament and weep and we can wait

11:42 quietly for rescue and redemption from the Lord as we remember God's mercy on us and we pass it on to our prodigals. So a question. Does it help you to know that God gets us, that he remembers that we are dust, and that his mercy for us is available to generously flow into us, over us, and through us? If you know someone who could use some mercy, invite them to listen to this. Next week we will follow two stories in Scripture of learning to give mercy. I am always grateful when you take a minute to like this podcast or rate it, review it, send it to a friend.

12:35 Let others hear and all of us need to hear about God's mercy. God bless you.