New Every Morning, episode 96

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If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey

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right here at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast. And also help and hope

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for your own life journey. Today we continue our look at mercy. God's mercy

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that he wants to pour out on us and into us and have it flow through us.

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As always, I encourage you to jot down what you hear from God or anything you

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want to look into more or try to apply. If you're like me, if I don't write it

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down, it's gone later. So I really encourage you to do that. First I want to

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just share with you some kind of personal reflections that have really

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helped me in understanding who God is and what he's like. Now I love words. I

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love discovering and using new words that I didn't know. They're like

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treasures to find and share. Sometimes I take sneaky pleasure in using words I

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don't think people will know. That's a true confession. I don't do it often. I

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have no artistic or musical gifts. I have conversations with the Lord about that

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sometimes. Math and science escape me. Engineering is incomprehensible to my

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mind. But words, oh my goodness, I can tell a story. I can weave a dream. I can

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preach a sermon. I did that last weekend. Some of my favorite words are used to

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describe my God and how he feels about me and you. So here's some great words

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that let us know how God looks at us. The first is reckless love. They called the

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Son of God from heaven to become the Son of Man on earth. Reckless love. Furious

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longing for me, to know me, to be with me, to love me, and true for you as well and

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for your loved prodigal. Relentless pursuit that never gives up seeking to

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find and woo and win each of us, all of us, including those much loved wanderers.

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Lavish generosity that gave it all and continues to give and give. We have been

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so gifted. Extravagant grace that flows over and in every crevice of my life and

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your life enables us to live through this wilderness journey with our

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prodigals but never runs dry or quits running after us or after our very loved

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wanderers, prodigals, the one who causes us so much pain. God is chasing after

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them. Scandalous sacrifice that God would die in our place, that we might live with

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him forever. Truly unimaginable. And then what we're talking about here, outrageous

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mercy that forgives the guilt of all the sins of one so reprehensible and

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unworthy as I am and as you are. Mercy for you and for your loved one. Our God

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loves mercy. I am undone by this God. It puts me on my face indefinitely,

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inadequately, always grateful for all that God has given me, done for me, and

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that he applies that to my prodigal as well. So think a minute, what are your

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favorite words to describe God? What has he whispered in your ear as you cry out

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for your prodigal? For wisdom, for courage, for strength, whatever you need in this

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journey. What's he saying to you? In a world full of vengeance, our God offers

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mercy and forgiveness. Whether or not you love a prodigal, most of my listeners

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probably do, but maybe some don't, surely you desire more mercy in your life. So

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let me ask you a question. How many tears do you think you've shed for your loved

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one, your prodigal? You have loved, provided, encouraged, you have fed and

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clothed, trained and taught, loved and lectured. I'm sure you've done a lot of

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lecturing. Reprimanded and reproved. You have fallen to your knees and on your

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face before the Lord. You have seen them go and waited for them to return. So you

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can identify at least a little with how our God feels for us, for all the

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prodigals in the world. He's pursuing them. He has this amazing love that he's

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talked about. Reckless love. He has a furious longing for them. He's

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relentless in his pursuit, lavishing the generosity of his life. Such grace

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extravagant grace. Made a scandalous sacrifice and the outrageous mercy that

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he's poured on us. So you can identify at least a little with our God. His children,

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his nation, his people, the children of Israel. He built them up, provided mana

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and quail and water for them in the wilderness. He gave them victory after

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victory as they went into the promised land. He led them to the promised land

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and into it. What did he ask for in return? That they would love him and obey

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the laws that he established which were for their flourishing and their freedom.

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So even in the boundaries, the laws that he set, the purpose was flourishing and

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freedom. And he did that over and over. Yet, century after century, the children

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of Israel turned from him, abandoned his laws, loved other gods. I imagine he wept

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many tears. We know that Jesus knew how to weep. So we come to the book of

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Lamentations, a book of laments over the destruction of Jerusalem and the

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enslavement of God's children and a book of many tears. Lamentations has usually

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been attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, the weeping prophet for good reason. The

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lamenter bewails the loss, the terror, the death and destruction, acknowledging

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that God had every right to bring the Babylonians against them in return for

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their choices. So let me read the few verses, just a few of the verses. It's a

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book of several chapters but a few verses that represent the pain and sorrow

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described throughout Lamentations. He has brought unending sorrow and tears upon

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beautiful Jerusalem. I have cried until the tears no longer come. My heart is

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broken. My spirit is poured out in agony as I see the desperate plight of my

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people. What can I say about you? Who has ever seen such sorrow, O daughter of

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Jerusalem? To what can I compare your anguish? O virgin daughter of Zion, how

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can I comfort you? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you? Again,

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it's the result of centuries of turning from God, chasing other gods, not doing

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what he asked, not being grateful for what he's given, just wanting to go their

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own way. We're kind of familiar with that, aren't we? But then Jeremiah the

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prophet suddenly, abruptly switches from his lament of what has happened to the

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children of Israel to words of hope and restoration, words of mercy. He says the

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faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his

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faithfulness. His mercies began afresh each morning. I say to myself, the prophet

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says, the Lord is my inheritance, therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is

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good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him, so it is good to wait

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quietly for salvation from the Lord. These are the words of our God for his

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rebellious people and they are the words that we can have for our rebellious

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loved ones. Words like these, I love you. I always have and I always will. I am

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faithful and my mercy is forever. New every morning. That means if so you

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repented that afternoon after receiving mercy from the Lord and you were

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seeking to do well but by the nighttime you'd already made some other mistakes

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or choices. Every morning there's new mercy. He says I am all that you need. You

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can hope in me. I will be good to you even as you search for me in all the

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wrong places, which as we know our loved ones, our prodigals often do. God knows,

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he hears our cries, he sees and saves our tears. So do you think he has big enough

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bottles that he's saving our tears in? I've cried an awful lot lately. He's been

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there. He's wept over his people. So yes, we can lament and weep and we can wait

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quietly for rescue and redemption from the Lord as we remember God's mercy on

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us and we pass it on to our prodigals. So a question. Does it help you to know

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that God gets us, that he remembers that we are dust, and that his mercy for us is

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available to generously flow into us, over us, and through us? If you know someone

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who could use some mercy, invite them to listen to this. Next week we will follow

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two stories in Scripture of learning to give mercy. I am always grateful when you

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take a minute to like this podcast or rate it, review it, send it to a friend.

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