Love Mercy

This last week has been a rough one for us. Abi and Chloe were having a fever and headache and then it turned into colds. Regretfully, Abi's then went to her ears, which is a first for us. While I was doing what I could for her and finally getting her to sleep, Hadassah, who was complaining her tummy didn't feel good, had to throw up! Quite a day! Abi's ears continued to bother her and after too little sleep, I guess I'm a little run down. I got a raging tonsil infection. I won't describe what they looked like! I have been sweating it out (literally!) and am on the mend. I'm doing what I call "The Lemonade Diet" (The Master Cleanse). Mix 1 cup hot water with 2 tablespoons lemon juice, (preferably fresh squeezed) and 1 tablespoon or more maple syrup, then shake in as much cayenne pepper as you can stand. It burns, but it hurts good and warms through from your throat and tonsils into your ears. I think all things considered and at my midwife's advice, I may fast on this for a while to really cleanse!
Needless to say, when I wasn't huddling under a blanket to feel warm, once I was hot, I'd get up and try to keep things going around here. Abe had to fill in the blanks and he did a good job of it! I have a new appreciation for the tortoise. It's amazing what can actually get done if you just keep chipping at it! I guess God knows that, it seems that's what He does with me!
"Slow and steady wins the race..."
"Like the hammer that breaks the rock in two..."

I had such a surprise the other day and I've been thinking on it ever since...
I was reading the lyrics to a song I hadn't heard, that was basically Micah 6:8.
"He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God?"
Now, last year, I felt like God was really teaching me about "walking humbly" with Him. What that should look like in my life, etc. One definition I love, of humility, is: Knowing who God is, and who we are, and not getting the two mixed up!
There isn't an area or subject or circumstance where this doesn't apply quite simply!
So, when I think of this verse, that's the part I identify with, that my heart runs to.
When I read this again the other day, I was so stunned to hear "love mercy"!
So that's what You've been up to, Abba! Teaching me to love mercy!
I always thought (without thinking) of "love mercy" as actually meaning, "be merciful". But I see now that's not what He's getting at here. I never before thought much about mercy. I didn't realize that it's such a huge part of who God is! All this winter, mercy has been emerging as a big deal, to me.

As shared in a previous post, Kathryn Scott's song "At the Foot of the Cross", has the line, "Coming to kiss the feet of Mercy..."
Phillips, Craig and Dean song, "Mercy Came Running" is especially beautiful to me...
Psalm 23... Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life...
Joni Eareckson Tada said: "This paralysis is my greatest mercy."
The song "Where Mercy Reigns" says... "Never alone, where Mercy reigns. Fear is unknown, where Mercy reigns.
Jesus will never change the way He feels for you. Love remains, where mercy reigns."
Just look up mercy in a concordance to notice all the times it doesn't just reference "mercy", but:
Great mercy... manifold mercy... tender mercy...

I do feel, that as we see Him for who He is, and His mercy begins to be a thing of beauty to us, instead of trying to "be merciful", I think it will flow as a fruit. As I accept His mercy and am humbled and awed by it, how can I stop it from flowing out! Once again it makes it all about Him, instead of all about me!


I look forward to spending each day, with eyes opened to look for His new mercies, hidden for me to search for! His ways are indeed "past finding out"!