Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

When you were a kid, do you remember playing with your brother or sister or friend and they grabbed your hand and twisted it and said "SAY MERCY"? Well, somedays I feel like that.

When your heart is heavy and you are stuggling through emotional times, it doesn't take much to knock you to your knees or to bring you to tears. I've been doing my best to remember, that when I am down on my knees that I should just pray. And keep praying until I pray myself back to my feet. And keep praying while I'm standing, so that they next time something comes along that knocks me to my knees, it will NOT take my desire and ability to get back up right along with it.

I've been an iPhone user for quite some time. And a few months ago, I discovered the YouVersion App. What a great invention. You can subscribe to reading plans from the Bible. Right now, I am subscribed to a daily Life Application Study, a 7-day plan for anger and hatred and 7-day plan about attitude. Yesterday, I received a virtual badge for competing the grief plan. Outside of the plans, I've been reading scriptures about weakness, mercy and grace, I came across a passage that has always been a friend to me. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

"So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, FOR MY POWER IS PERFECT IN WEAKNESS.
MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, FOR MY POWER IS PERFECT IN WEAKNESS.
MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, FOR MY POWER IS PERFECT IN WEAKNESS.

I feel like a child writing sentences on the blackboard at school. If I write it enough, I will believe it. And if I write it enough, I will not do whatever it was that got me to this point right now.

FOR HE SAID "MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, FOR MY POWER IS PERFECT IN WEAKNESS."

In the Bible you read how David was scoffed at, mocked, insulted, humiliated, and made the object of gossip. But he still prayed. He was completely beaten down and he did not turn from God.

Have you turned from God? Have you given up and quit trusting him? I know that I have from time to time. But I am learning that no matter how hopeless my situation seems, or how bad things become that I must continue to pray. God will hear my prayers and he will resuce me. When we are rejected by others. We need God the most. Why is is that we always seems to turn from our most faithful friend?

The song that I linked today is Blessing by Laura Story from 2004. My what powerful lyrics. Here is the end of the song.

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise.

FOR HE SAID "MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, FOR MY POWER IS PERFECT IN WEAKNESS."