Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today the Holy Spirit wants to help us appreciate God’s unfailing renewing compassions.

Today’s scripture, Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV) testifies…
[22] Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. [23] They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Consider…
Today’s scripture uses compassions as a plural noun, which means compassion is tangible. Since it’s a noun, we can touch, see and feel it physically.

Today’s song explains how we experience these compassions this way…
As I look back over my life
I can see how Your love has guided me
Even though I’ve done wrong
You never left me alone
But You forgave me
And You kept on blessing

Here we see God’s felt compassions are His…

• Guiding love
• Constant presence
• Continual Blessings

As special as those tangible feelings are, they are supersized when we realize we experience them “Even though I’ve done wrong”.

That line shuffled me to Lonnie Hunter’s lyrical testimony…

Grace is when You get more than You deserve
Mercy is when You don′t get exactly what You do deserve

Don′t deserve it
So unworthy
Still You bless me anyway

So sorry
I′ve fallen short of Your word
Inspite of myself
Still You blessed me anyway

I am so grateful that we have an ‘anyway’ God!

Romans 5:20 (NLT), emphasizes God’s ‘anywayness’ (my word) this way…
[20] God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.

The song lyrics and this scripture makes me remember Jerry Bridges’ quote from his book The Discipline of Grace…
“Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”

It’s a blessing to know that regardless of who we are or what we’ve done, we’re never beyond God’s grace!

The Holy Spirit just connected the dots for me, compassions are the tangible expressions of God’s limitless grace.

Yet, today’s scripture uses two key words that are critical to gaining a full appreciation of God’s limitless grace, ‘never fail’. God’s compassion is unfailing!

Indeed, just a few verses later than today’s scripture is Lamentations 3:31-32 (NLT) which further attests…
[31] For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. [32] Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love.

Oh my, this immediately reminded me of 2 Peter 3:9 (NIV), which explains…
[9] The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

This adds the adjective of patient to God’s unfailing compassion. That means, God’s compassion unwaveringly waits for us to turn to Him.

Indeed I believe God is waiting to here us pray like David in Psalms 51:1-3 (NLT)…
[1] Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. [2] Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. [3] For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.

This makes me realize God’s not interested in our innocence protest, He’s listening and waiting for our mercy request.

1 John 1:8-10 (NLT) explains it this way…
[8] If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. [9] 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. [10] If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

God knows we will fail and sin, which is why He relys on His limitless grace expressed through unfailing compassions. In fact, when we look closer at today’s scripture we see that not only are God’s compassions unfailing, they are new EVERY MORNING!

This let’s us know God has no illusions about our sinful nature. He knows we are likely to sin everyday, yet because of His compassions He blesses us anyway!

Today, I want to encourage us to do better and be better (Romans 6:1-2), but even more than that we should be eternally grateful that as brother Lonnie sings…

Inspite of myself
Still You blessed me anyway

The last thing the Holy Spirit wanted me to remind us about is that God’s patient unfailing compassions are based on Him. 2 Timothy 2:13 (NLT) attests…
[13] If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.

The Holy Spirit is telling me to close by sharing today’s scripture again. Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV) testifies…
[22] Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. [23] They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Today’s song is…
You’ve Been So Faithful

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)