The Unexpected Ending- He is Faithful

This morning I awoke to the song "Hosanna." When I hear it, my imagination takes me to a place in history where the news of Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem is first breaking. As He enters in on a donkey, I see myself amongst the crowd of people who had been wondering if he would come. I can feel the desperateness and relief in their hearts as they shout "Hosanna" God save us!

They sing with a knowing that they finally get to see their prayers in faith become a reality. The rescue. And then, how they must have felt when their version of the story looked nothing like His.

After reading my devotional today, I thought God did respond to their cry for help.  The shout "God save us" tipped the bowl of prayers that had been filling with the prayers of faith since the beginning of time. The spill produced a shower of mercy and grace that gave them the ability to withstand His heartbreaking version of the story. Our plans almost never line up with God's. We expect the rescue to look a certain way. Unfortunately, most of the time, His version of the story is first seen through eyes of faith. Why, I guess it allows us to make a choice, is He good? Is He faithful? The crowd that day gathered to watch an expected ending, but it was just the beginning to an unexpected end. His ending would help them, and us make the right choice. He is good, and He is Faithful.

A lyric in the song above sums it all up for me.

"But when I think about the road you took for love, I know your grace will stay the path."

When we can't see what He's doing, we choose to believe He is working it out in a way that will reveal His good and His glory in our story.  He wants our story to be good, but sometimes our version has to die before He can write His. When He died on the cross, all we could see was an unjustified death. And it was, but it was the only way to justify it. His death gave us life. It took time to see what death was doing on the cross. And, with His mercy and grace, we learn to overcome the pain of watching our plans die until we see His plan come alive.

This season He keeps reminding of Sarah's story.

"She judged Him faithful who had promised". - Hebrews 11:11

What precedes those words about Sarah is where we find the way we can also judge Him faithful.

 "Through faith, Sarah herself received strength to conceive."

It is by faith, having faith in the unseen goodness and faithfulness of God, that we are given the "strength" (Mercy & Grace) to conceive His promise.

The ending to Sarah's story needed to die so God's could come alive within her. He let her write one, and it didn't turn out so good. He also gave her time to see her way didn't lead to life. I'm sure there was a private moment where she cried out too, God save me. It's at that moment we understand we need a new ending. We stop striving and struggling and let go. It's the perfect place for faith. Nothing else can enter because you can see no other ending. And that's when He gives us the strength to conceive a new plan, His perfect plan. In this space and place, we will see His goodness and judge Him faithful.

Another wonderful devotional below to remind us of His faithfulness. His mercies are new every single day. An anchor for us all.

RACHAMIM

“Do you believe,” said the teacher, “that God has mercy?”

“Yes,” I replied.  “Of course, you’ve taught me that.”

“No,” said the teacher.  “God does not have mercy.”

“With all respect,” I said cautiously, “that’s not right.”   It was the first time I had ever contradicted him in such a direct way.

“Prove your point,” he said.

“I was just reading the Book of Daniel.  In it, Daniel prays for God’s mercy on the people of Israel.  He says, “To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness…”

“It doesn’t say that,” he replied, “not in the original language.  It says ‘to the Lord belong rachamim.'”

“What is rachamim?”

“Some would translate it as mercy.  But rachamim is not a singular noun.  It’s plural.  It doesn’t mean mercy.  It means mercies.  It means that God’s mercy is more than mercy.  God’s mercy is so great, so strong, and so deep that it can’t be contained in a single word.  Rachamim means that His mercy has no end.”

“What about the word for sin?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Is it by nature singular or plural?”

“The word for sin,” said the teacher, “is singular.”

“But the word for mercy is plural,” I said.

“And what odes that tell you?”

“That no matter what my sin is, no matter how great, the mercy of God is always greater.  And no matter how much I’ve sinned, no matter how many sins I have, the mercies of God are more than my sins.”

“Yes,” said the teacher.  “So don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that you’ve exhausted God’s mercy.  You never have.  You never could.  And you never will.  He will always have more mercies than you have sins, more than enough to cover every sin and to still have enough compassion left over to love you forever.  For what the Lord has for you is not mercy…but rachamim.”

The Mission:  Open your heart today to receive the rachamim God has for you, not only for your sins, but the overflowing rivers of His compassions and love.

Psalm 136; Lamentations 3:22-23; Daniel 9:9; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Cahn, Jonathan. “Rachamim.” The Book of Mysteries. Lake Mary, FL: FrontLine, 2016. Day 56. Print.