Promptings

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Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
Proverbs 27:19 As in water face reflects face, So a man's heart reveals the man.

Promptings

The Power of Mercy

Recently I felt prompted to read Ps. 13. It spoke to me immediately, as the last few months have been a particularly stressful time, testing my trust and faith in many ways.

David begins: “How long, O Lord? The very question on my heart. And he goes on to lament the circumstances, cry out to be heard, and that his enemies might not triumph over him. After a time of pouring out of his complaint, there is the characteristic David shift, and he says:

BUT I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

It is a seemingly opposite declaration. What happened? Looks like he moved from looking at very testing circumstances to the mercy, grace, and saving power of God. Which direction we are facing is critical as it dictates our perspective and peace. Looking at the stressors, especially if they continue, produces a kind of despair; looking at the Lord Himself produces truth which restores hope and faith.

I pondered that a bit, seeing that trusting in mercy is the key here. So, I looked up mercy. In Strong’s it is 2617,checed and basically means kindness. Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies elaborates on the meaning of kind, saying: “The general import of this word seems to be, the full flow of natural affection.” That brought tears to my eyes because it is the very thing the Lord has been doing for months as I have wrestled through circumstances; it’s the way He has kept putting me back together and strengthening me for the next round.

Pondering this definition, I realized that lack of a full flow of natural affection is at the heart of most people’s wounding, insecurity, view of themselves, and it impacts their view of God as well. It hit me how powerful mercy is, of the sort the Lord means! It’s the key to well-being and recovery, able to overrule other messages that do not impart well-being or truth. So, He does the opposite of the battering circumstances, He pours out what is lacking, filling David’s and our hearts with mercy, His full flow of natural affection!

I thought there might be some folks out there who could relate to this discovery the Lord showed me from Ps. 13.

May the Lord bless your own pondering of this!

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