Each morning there are new mercies from God towards us! Every single day is a gift from God! His faithfulness is not capricious, blowing with the wind or changing on a whim. It is Christmas morning every single day of our lives but we sometimes can only seem thankful on December 25th, or if something really big happens. Cultivating a thankful heart protects us from the lies of the enemy and empowers us in Christ. When we properly reflect upon all God has done, is doing, and has promised to do, how can we not be thankful! The key verses conclude with a reminder of some of the benefits we have already received. Benefits we need to be ever mindful of and thankful for.
The Psalmist starts by reminding us that God forgives all of our sins and heals all our diseases. Not some; all. The greatest gift given to us by God is the forgiveness of sins. We did nothing to earn it. We do not deserve it. Quite frankly we undervalue it and underestimate the depth of God's grace. When Jesus Christ hung on that old wooden cross it was to cover all of our sins, past, present and future. The Bible says there is now no condemnation for those who walk with Christ. Yet how many Christians still lead bound lives? Bound by the guilt of sins past, the struggles of sins present, and the foreboding sense of defeat in the sins yet to come? God does not expect perfection beloved -- He expects repentance. We strive towards Christ-likeness knowing full well we can never attain it in this mortal flesh. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God but He is not a God of a second chance but rather another chance. We often strip His power out of our lives by refusing to accept the scope of His grace in our lives. We fall into the traps of legalism, guilt, or a works-based religiosity that can never satisfy and only serves to deepen the divide between us and God. Should we provide service unto God? Absolutely but not out of some warped sense of duty but rather because there are other people in desperate need of the same bottomless grace that He has bestowed upon us. This gift of forgiveness of sins is not only a daily occurrence but a moment to moment experience:
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. -- 1John 1: 8-10 (NLT)
These are some of the traps we can fall into regarding our sin and God's grace. We can convince ourselves to look the other way when it comes to our own sin issues. We see false gospels abounding that focus solely on the grace of God so as to lull the believer into thinking they do not have to worry about sin in their lives. That is pure heresy. We cannot claim we have no sin anymore than we claim we have never sinned. We need an honest and open policy when it comes to our sin. Today's deep theology is this -- God knows what we try to hide or downplay from Him anyway -- why not just confess it? If we confess it than He is faithful and just to forgive that sin and cleanses us as well! That is the gift that keeps on giving because it restores our closeness with God and empowers us to trample on the lies of the enemy who seeks to use our sin to divide us against the very grace that saves us.
The Psalmist next reminds us that God is the God who redeemed our life from the pit. Humility is crucial to a thankful heart, which is necessary to walk in the power Christ intends for us to have. The sad reality is that far too often we can forget as Christians how far down God had to go to save our sin sick souls. What pit did He find you in? I remember my pit very well. So did the Apostle Paul:
For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God's church. -- 1Corinthians 15: 9 (NLT)
Paul was responsible for starting so many churches across the known world yet he always maintained his humility. Even at his end, he refused to accept that he had grabbed hold of why God grabbed hold of him. We see in this verse the secret was that he never forgot the
One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, "Praise God!" He fell to the ground at Jesus' feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Didn't I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?" And Jesus said to the man, "Stand up and go. Your faith has healed you." -- Luke 17: 15-19 (NLT)
