Lent Devotional – Day 9

God’s Mercy: Guilt to Repentance.

“…according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion…” – Psalm 51

Lent could very well be a time to do what one may call “personal stock-taking”.

It should not be a time-consuming process if we are truthful to find the sin and muck that traps our lives. How do you deal with it? David was a man who was overpowered with shame and guilt over the condition of his own soul. Uncovered by the prophet Nathan as an adulterer and a murderer, David begins this admission by talking not about the sin that he has committed, but about God’s character. He pleads to God to act towards him according to His unwavering love and abundant mercy.

In Luke 18, “Have mercy on me, O God” was the prayer of the tax collector, without any reservations or qualifications, he threw himself to the mercy of God and “went home justified that day.”

Confession and repentance begin where excuse-making stops, and life out of death emerges as we put our trust exclusively in the mercy of God.

One of the spectacular realities of the Christian life is that in a world where everything is in some state of rotting, God’s mercies never grow old. They never run out. They never dry up. They never grow weak. They never get weary. They never are ill-timed. They never fail to meet the need. They never disappoint.

Thank God for His mercy, seen most distinctly in Jesus’ death on the Cross that turns our guilt into repentance through His unfailing love and great compassions. Let this truth restore the joy of our salvation this Lenten season.

Mr. Surender Pokhal