Monday, December 5, 2011

...not because we deserve help, but because of your mercy

I was reading in Daniel today and was so blown away by the prayer of Daniel in chapter 9. I love this stuff! I love reading things I have read time and again, but being surprised out of my fuzzy zebra slippers by words which I don't remember processing before!

"...we make this plea, not because we deserve help, but because of your mercy. O Lord hear. O Lord forgive. O Lord, listen and act!"

You can just hear the emotional pleading in these words. The utter humility and brokenness.

Those words - the first 14 there: "we make this plea, not because we deserve help, but because of your mercy"  - are just embedding themselves in my heart during this advent season. As we prepare for the celebration of Christ's birth I am so struck with how deeply we - all of humankind - need help. We desperately need to be rescued from ourselves!

And every now and then we get a glimpse of our greed stained humanity and how we just have no right to ask a sinless and perfect God for anything.

And yet....

This is what I celebrate as the excitement fills our home this December. I celebrate the "and yet".

The second part of that first sentence: "not because we deserve help, but because of your mercy".


Just let it pierce through the crazy of this month for a minute.

5 comments:

Kristen said...

God teaches my heart so much through your words. Thanks, always, for writing, using your gifts so well.

The Sneaky Mommy said...

I love it when a blog post makes me want to get my Bible out and do some underlining! :)

Unknown said...

I'm with Sneaky Mommy. I'm heading off to look up those verses in Daniel. Thank you so much for sharing this!

Nikki said...

Ahhhhh...that's an amazing verse. Thank you for sharing it. It's a much-need reminder (for me) of how much I don't deserve all that I've been given.

Andrea said...

Yes, so true, this hit home for me in a huge way last night! Isn't it beautiful how you can read a passage or verse over and over, and something new reveals itself each time - I just love that about God's word!