When We Need Mercy and Favor
Those we love are hurting. The reasons for their pain may often be self-inflicted. We may have prayed for God to correct them, to help them see the error of their ways; we do not wish them harm or harsh consequence. We do not want them to fall on their faces or be cast down in humiliation. Yet when God begins to move in the lives of His people, in answer to prayers, we often hurt. We hurt for our loved ones’ hurt. We empathize with their inadequacies, their futility, their fears. We agonize over their struggle, their heartache. We need mercy and favor. Are you there with a loved one, now? Like Moses, cry out on their behalf:
“Turn, O Lord! How long? Revoke Your sentence and be compassionate and at ease toward Your servants. O satisfy us with Your mercy and loving-kindness in the morning [now, before we are older], that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad in proportion to the days in which You have afflicted us and to the years in which we have suffered evil.” Psalm 90:13–15.
Moses needed mercy. He begged God to revoke his sentence and be compassionate. The consequences of our mistakes in life are often met with prayers filled with pleas for mercy and pardon. Moses asked for “gladness in proportion to the days” with which the people were afflicted…and “the years” in which they “suffered evil”. We know that God answered that prayer. We know God poured out His blessing upon His people and protected them; He sustained and empowered them. He fulfilled all His promises to them. This is God’s delight.
It brings joy to the Father in heaven to pour out His blessings upon His people. He loves us. He loved the world so much that even before they repented and turned from their wickedness, He sent His only begotten Son to stand in their place for judgment of their sin. Before we loved Him, He loved us. He did not forsake us and will not forsake us. He is faithful and true and it does not matter if we understand our circumstances, our trials, our storms; He does. He knows and never sleeps nor slumbers. He watches over us just like He does the lowly sparrow.
Later in the same Psalm it is written, “And let the beauty and delightfulness and favor of the Lord our God be upon us; confirm and establish the work of our hands—yes, the work of our hands, confirm and establish it.” Psalm 90:17.
We don’t always find ourselves in a quandry and dire circumstances because of wrong-doing or sin. Sometimes it is because of poor judgment, faulty decisions, or impulsive actions. However, it is certain when we turn to our Lord and confess our foolishness, then trust in Him instead of our own intellect and knowledge, that He will have mercy and “confirm and establish the work of our hands”. When we work with the best of intentions, with motives to honor the Lord, He will do as He did the captive Israelites. He will help us rebuild the walls that were torn down. selahV
PRAYER: Oh, Lord, we have failed. We strayed from Your perfect plan for our lives. We know we sometimes get ahead of You, choose things we should not choose. Forgive us, Lord. Bring us back into the pathway of Your will. Restore to us the days the locust has eaten. Incline Your ear to us, our Father, and hear our plea for help.
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