READING: Jeremiah 30-33; 1 Peter 1
I know my salvation is solely due to God’s grace and mercy, but I confess I sometimes take it for granted. Even while I preach about God’s mercy, I forget just how guilty I am – and how much I truly need God’s forgiving love. The fascination I had with God’s unbelievable mercy when I was a new believer sometimes settles into the routine now 45+ years after my conversion. That admission is hard to put in print, but honesty puts me in the place for Scripture to grab my heart today.
Particularly, I’m struck by these words: “Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Pet 1:3-4). I was dead in my sin, but God gave me new birth because His mercy is great. I was (though I didn’t recognize it as a young teenager) living for the temporary, and I thought very little about the reality of death. God, however, gave me new life and a living hope that points to the eternal. What He has graciously given me will endure forever; it cannot be tarnished or defiled.
All because of God’s mercy.
PRAYER: “I praise You, Lord, for Your mercy and love.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Jeremiah 38, 39, 52; 1 Peter 2
