God’s Mercies Are New Every Morning: Living in His Grace

Each morning brings a fresh start and a fresh measure of God’s mercy. In this episode, Audrey shares how Lamentations 3 reminds us that God’s faithfulness never runs out and how we can rest in our identity as His beloved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Life's Constant Busyness
• 3:17 Lamentations 3:22-23 - Mercies New Every Morning
• 5:59 Our Covenant Relationship with God
• 10:19 The Gift of Salvation and Simple Faith
• 15:51 Learning from Failure and Finding Wisdom
• 21:08 New Identity in Christ
• 26:20 The Security Salesperson's Story

Transcript

Audrey: 1:13

Hello and welcome back to Grace From my Home. I'm Audrey McCracken and I'm so glad to be back with you again this week. I hope that you're doing well. We are, we're doing great. It's a busy season, but I say that every week. It's always a busy season. You know, I read something the other day that said adulthood is saying for the rest of your life, once I get through this project, things will be easier. And they're never easier. There's always another project, there's always something else to take its place. And so we're in the throes right now. We've got sports and school and just all kinds of things going on. But good things.

Audrey: 1:52

This week I wanted to share with you one of my favorite scriptures and I know I say that a lot, but it truly is one of my favorite scriptures because even from the beginning of my walk with the Lord, I remember this scripture brought me comfort. This scripture was a promise that brought me peace in times when I felt anxious or worried or condemned or guilty. And this is the scripture. It's Lamentations starting in chapter 3, verse 22. It says it is because of the Lord's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his tender compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great and beyond measure is your faithfulness, and that's verses 22 and 23 of chapter 3 in Lamentations. And I love that because he talks here in verse 22 about the Lord's loving kindnesses and his tender mercies or tender compassions, and it says they never fail, they never stop, they never dry up and they're new every morning. And I don't know about you, but reminds me that every day I can start over, every day is a new chance to get it right, and there are things in every day that we get right and things we get wrong. But no matter how bad we mess up, no matter what we do, if our heart is to obey God, if our heart is to love God, then we can rest assured that the next day we wake up we're starting on a fresh sheet of paper, and that's comforting to me.

Audrey: 3:47

You know we are in a covenant relationship with God and a covenant is sealed with blood. You know, in the Old Testament there was an old covenant and that covenant was sealed with the blood of animals and it had to be renewed every year because the blood of animals cannot take away sin. But in the New Testament it talks about in Hebrews how our new covenant is sealed with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is an eternal covenant precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is an eternal covenant. And he is committed to us not just for a season. He's not just giving us a try to see if we can do it. He is committed to us for eternity. And he starts off by knowing we can't do it. He knows we cannot serve him without him. And that's the whole point of Jesus dying is we could not do it without him. And it even talks about in the New Testament how the Old Testament was a.

Audrey: 4:47

The law is what it calls it. The law was a schoolmaster. It was there to show the way to those who were to be heirs, but it was to show them that they could not do it without help. And that's how we are today. We can want to serve God with all of our heart. It doesn't matter how much we want to serve God, don't get me wrong. It does matter that we want to serve God. It does matter that we have a heart that wants to please him. But no matter how much we want to please him, no matter how hard we try, we can't because we are human and we are not able, and that's why Jesus came, because we were born in a sinful state. We were born under the curse of the law, and the Bible tells the beautiful story of how we have been redeemed in Christ. The blood of Jesus has washed us from all of our sins.

Audrey: 5:41

You know often we'll talk about salvation and how salvation is free. And salvation is free to us. It is offered to us at no cost. But salvation was not free. It was purchased with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, which is the highest price that's ever been paid for anything, and so we get to take advantage of this wonderful gift. But it was definitely not free. It was the most expensive gift ever given, and so we get to be partakers in that by grace, not by works, not by anything we've done, but because we believe and I love the way the Lord does that he makes a way for everyone who believes.

Audrey: 6:29

It's not dependent on your education or even your intellect. Even a child can understand the plan that God put forth for salvation. It's not limited on your income. It's not limited by your history or your family or the caste that you were born into or anything like that. It's all by faith. You know all who will believe they can be saved. And you know God is so good that he makes it simple. He makes his plan so simple that even a child can grasp it, and at the same time it's so rich and full that we'll never exhaust it. We can never study it and get it all. That's the thing about studying the Bible we never get it. We can get more and we can grow and we can be encouraged, but we never exhaust the scripture because it's so rich and it's so full and there's always more, because he's eternal, he goes on and on forever and he loves us.

Audrey: 7:31

So when I came to the Lord, I was a mess I don't know how else to say it. I wanted to know God, but there was a part of me that wasn't even sure if I could, if I wasn't even sure, if I was good enough to walk with Jesus, and it was comforting to me to realize that I wasn't, that none of us are, that we are all starting on ground zero. None of us come to Him and can bring anything that's of worth or value as far as entering into the kingdom. And it's all because of the work he did nothing that we can take credit for, and that puts us all at the same starting point. We are saved by grace by faith, are saved by grace by faith and that's good news. You know, that's good news, especially for someone like me, because I really did believe growing up and this was while in church that there were some people who just got it, they just were good. And then there were other people like me who were not and they just couldn't do it, couldn't try hard enough, couldn't do the right things. You know, just wanted the the right things, just wanted the wrong things. I just wanted the wrong things. And when I look back now I see that the Lord was just showing me that I needed Him. And I've been in a season lately where he's been showing me again that I need Him.

Audrey: 8:54

And, guys, that often happens through failure, that often happens through hitting the wall, and we find ourselves frustrated and mad, even angry at God, because the things we thought we were doing, the places we thought we were going, the projects we thought we were supposed to be doing, didn't end like we thought they should. And so, you know, we kind of find ourselves. You know just what am I supposed to do now? And those are wonderful places, they don't feel wonderful. Nobody wants to go there. Nobody wants to go to a place where they feel defeated or they feel like God's let them down or they wonder about their life choices. We don't want to be there. We want to feel like we're on the right track and doing all the right things.

Audrey: 9:42

But often God will get us to those places. So we can remember that it's not us. So we can remember that anything we do in life worth doing is going to have to be by his grace, is going to have to be by His grace. It's going to have to be Him and not us, because we are fruitful when we abide, when we abide in Him and we stay connected to Him. That's when the real fruit comes, not when we're out doing our own thing, trying to impress or trying to figure it out on our own. He wants to walk with us.

Audrey: 10:17

It's not something where we go out and do it and then we come back and say look, father, what I've made you, look what I brought to you. It's more like let's do this together, let's walk on this path together, and sometimes we get a little further than we should and we lose track of Him. And he's still there. He's still watching over us. But we're too far from him to actually hear what he's saying and you know we're too far ahead to listen and obey. And so sometimes he has to bring us back and that oftentimes feels and looks like failure and you know I don't like that. But I've served him long enough that I see his grace in it, I see his mercy in it that he would rather us experience those times of failure than us to succeed and be far from him. He would rather us experience those times of failure and learn how to stay close to him, because he loves us so and his tender mercies are new every morning.

Audrey: 11:24

You know, maya Angelou said, when we know better, we do better, and that's so true. You know, when we become a Christian, when we are born again, we are born of the Spirit and the Holy Spirit comes inside of us to live with us and live in us and to guide us. And he talks to us and he leads us and you know, he convicts us when we go in the wrong direction and he guides us back. And if we all have an ear to hear and be sensitive to Him, then he will keep us on the path. But I like that thought that when we know better, we do better, because I think there are a lot of people who just don't know better. Now, granted, there's a lot of people who know better, who don't care, I admit that.

Audrey: 12:05

But I was one of those people who I really didn't know a lot, and when I came to the Lord I was hungry to learn and I believed him when he said ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find Knock and the door shall be opened. You know that scripture that says if you ask the Lord for a fish, he's not going to give you a serpent. If you ask the Lord for truth, if you ask him to show you and guide you and lead you on the right path, he's not going to give you something. That's going to hurt you. But it's good to have a desire to learn and grow, as long as we stay close to him and he can show us those things that are error and those things that are truth. And so I had such a hunger to learn and to grow. I still do.

Audrey: 13:00

But the more I learned, the more I realized that he puts forth a lot of principles in his word, and if we will learn those principles and apply those principles to our life, our life will go a lot smoother Now. It does not mean we won't have trouble or issues or problems, doesn't mean that at all. It just means that we will avoid a lot of negative things if we learn and use wisdom and he teaches that wisdom, but it's like buried treasure in his word and if we can humble ourselves to get into the word and find the buried treasure and apply it to our lives, then there are a lot of things that we can avoid. There's a lot of pain that we can avoid. We'll still go through tests. We'll still go through hard things, but they won't be as a result of our foolishness. And in the process we'll learn a lot about God and we'll learn about how to be a better person, a better mom, a better husband, a better wife.

Audrey: 13:59

You know God will teach us those things because he wants us to be wise and it brings glory to him when we, as his children, act in a way that is honorable and that shows wisdom and shows maturity. Now he's not honored when we go out and do foolish things and suffer the consequences. God wants to teach us wisdom, but often it's the sting of walking outside of his life-giving principles that bring us back to his feet to find out why does this keep happening to me? And so he rewards us abundantly when we come to his feet and we say, father, show me the way, help me to stop making the same mistakes and falling into the same pits. You know, if this is the enemy, let's deal with the enemy, but if these are choices that I'm making, help me, father, and he will.

Audrey: 14:55

I truly believe he delights in that, because I do not think it's his heart to punish, only to correct. You know, our punishment was taken out on Jesus Christ and when he corrects it feels like punishment, but I believe it's more corrective than anything, because his heart is to show compassion and grace. And, like any good parent, I want the best for my children. I do not for any reason want to hurt them, that there is a blessing for those who obey and there is correction for those who do not. Not because I'm mad at them, not because I don't like them, not because I don't want the best for them, but because I do want the best for them. And that's what it feels like to be a child of God, is learning that anything that stings is not necessarily bad. It might be a lesson no, it might be the enemy, but it might just be life. You know, things happen. It rains on the just and the unjust. Or it might be a result of my foolishness or where I did not make a wise decision. And if it is the latter, I so want to learn, because I don't want to go back around that mountain again.

Audrey: 16:03

I want to learn, and I believe you do too, and one of the things that I think goes along with this this desire to grow, this desire to change, this desire to do right even when you've done wrong in the past is learning who you are in Christ. Our identity, how we see ourselves. It makes a huge difference in the things that we do Now. I believe our identity is set. I believe God created us to be with him forever in glory. I believe that's why he created us. That's our destiny. But I also believe that we have to choose, that we have to choose to be chosen. I do not believe in predestination as far as God makes that choice for us. I believe he gives us the opportunity because he gives us a free will and he will not force his will on us, but that he greatly desires us to choose him. Even in the Old Testament he said today I said before you life and death. Choose life. Here are your choices, and he even tells us what the right choice is. But we are created in Christ Jesus.

Audrey: 17:17

You know, there's a lot of positive psychology out there today and I believe that there are principles that we can learn, even non-Christians, that they can learn and have a better life just by knowing how the world works. Just by knowing how the mind works and how our bodies work and working with those things. Then we can have a better life. Just by doing those natural things and making natural changes we can live a better life. But being a Christian is more than that. Being a Christian means we have been born again by the Spirit of God. It means that we have become a new person in Christ.

Audrey: 17:59

When we believe. When we believe in Christ, when we believe he is who he says he is, that he was the Son of God, incarnate, wrapped in flesh, come to earth, lived a sinless life, showed us the way, died for our sins and rose again on the third day. When we believe that in our hearts and we confess it with our mouth. Instantly the Spirit of God comes into our spirit and our dead spirit is regenerated by the power of God, and we are a new creature in Christ, not just a better person. We didn't just turn a leaf. We are literally a new creature, a new species, a new person in Christ, and we are just then. That's not the end, okay, being born again is just the beginning. It's the end of our old life, but it's the beginning of our real life, of our new life. And when we're born again, our new life is just starting.

Audrey: 19:01

And only then are these promises in the word ours to claim, because all the promises in the Bible are for believers. The promises in the Bible are for those who believe it's by faith, and so, as a believer, we can get in this Word and find out what is the covenant. The covenant has promises. The covenant is sealed with blood, but it has eternal promises. And so now, as a believer, I can go in that Word and the Holy Spirit will shine His light on it and show me the life that God intends for me to live.

Audrey: 19:34

Every man, every woman born after the fall was dead to the things of God, but in Christ, when we believe. Now the Holy Spirit comes in, brings life into our spirit and we are born again. We are alive again. Unto God. We are new creatures. We are Christians again unto God. We are new creatures, we are Christians, we are children of the Most High God. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, something that had never existed before and that happens instantly in our spirit. Our spirit is immediately born again. Spirit is immediately born again, but and this is a big but okay we live in earthly, fleshly bodies. We've lived in this body. For me, I was 22 when I became a Christian, so I had 22 years of living in this body and I have a mind and a will and emotions that were trained to in this world.

Audrey: 20:33

And so the Bible talks about being transformed into the image of Christ, that as we behold him, we become like him. And that is a process that is not instant. Our entire life we will be becoming like him. And the Bible says until we see him, because once we see him we will be like him in an instant. See, our spirit is changed instantly. It's sealed with the spirit of God and instantly changed. When we become Christians, our soul, that's, our mind, our will, our emotions is being changed gradually. It's being transformed into the image of Christ, from glory to glory. That's the process. That's the road we are on as born again believers. Our body will be changed eventually. When we see him, we will be like him. The Bible speaks that one day we will have a new body. Now this body will go into the ground and die and decay, and we were dust and we will return to dust. But we, as believers, have the promise of one day having a new body. So our spirit is transformed instantly, our soul is transformed gradually and our body is transformed eventually.

Audrey: 21:56

But today, as we're on that road, walking with Christ being transformed, we have to renew our minds in the truth of God. We have to learn the ways of God and how to practice our faith here on this earth, while we're being transformed. And in order to do that, we must learn who we are in Christ. We must learn that we have a new identity in Christ. We are now children of the Most High God, and knowing that will pull you through some horrible days and circumstances and situations. Just knowing that my father loves me, that I belong to him, that he wants what's best for me, that he has good plans for me, knowing that I belong to him, that he paid the ultimate price for me, that I'm precious to him, that we are in a covenant relationship that will pull me light years ahead when my past tries to come back and pull me down. When the world tries to remind me of who I was and say that that's still who I am. When the enemy tries to come and say but I know what you did. Knowing that my father loves me and that I am born again and I belong to him, will pull me through so many, so many bad situations.

Audrey: 23:18

But we have to renew our mind in who we are today, what our true identity is, because if not, we will continue to believe that we are that person we were before Christ and, guys, we have to believe not only in Christ, but that he meant what he said when he said we are new creatures. In Christ, we have to walk in our true identity, which is a child of God. That's the only way we can experience the freedom that's in Christ. It's the only way that we can break through from the chains of our past. It's the only way that we can break through from the chains of our past. It's the only way we can truly enjoy this new life that we've been given is to believe that we are who God says we are, even on days when we don't feel it. And that, my friend, is why I love Lamentations 3, 22, and 23, because it reminds me every day is a new start. Maybe yesterday was rough, maybe this morning was rough, but his tender mercies are new every morning and I choose to partake in them. I choose to believe that he is real, that he loves me, that he's gracious to me, that he is rooting for my well-being and that he is showing me the way of life, and that if I walk with him and believe these things about him and these things about myself, then I'll see progress and I'll become more and more like Him, and the things of the past will have to let go as my mind is renewed in Christ and I start to live the life that he created me for.

Audrey: 25:08

Many years ago, I worked as a security salesperson. I've had a lot of jobs. You can probably tell if you listen to the podcast. For a while, luckily, I had a job where they called me and I went to them. I did not do cold calls, thank goodness, but I had an appointment one time with a lady and she was in her 60s, she had just moved into a new home and she wanted me to come and talk with her about a security system. And so I did, and as we were talking she just reminded me of my grandmother. She was really sweet, very matter of fact. But in the conversation it came up that she cleaned houses and I at the time had three small kids at home and I was looking for somebody to help me with my house. And I said, really Well, tell me about that.

Audrey: 25:54

Well, her demeanor changed. She seemed kind of awkward, kind of uncomfortable. She said well, before I do that, I have to tell you something. And she said I am a felon. And that was not what I expected to hear. She said let me tell you my story. She said 20 years ago I had a friend who was going through a nasty divorce. She asked me to go with her to a bar where she was going to wait outside and confront her husband who she knew was having an affair. And so she rode with her friend to be supportive to this bar. And when her husband at the end of the night came out of that bar, her friend, instead of getting out of the car and confronting him, pulled out a gun and shot and killed her husband.

Audrey: 26:46

Well, she went to court and she was convicted as an accomplice in murder 20 years in prison. During those 20 years her friend, who actually shot her husband, was released because the laws were changed and because she was a victim of domestic violence. She was released early, but not her friend who rode with her. She had to serve out her entire 20-year sentence. She did not get to see her little boy grow up. She, her husband, divorced her and it took her life.

Audrey: 27:24

Now, granted, I only got her side of the story. I'm sure there was probably another side, but I believe her. But she had to make sure, before I hired her for any other services, that she knew that I knew exactly who she was and she said that's who I am. I am a felon and I have to let people know that. I don't want you to come into your home and you not know this, because I want to just have full disclosure and I've thought about her often and I thought you know her life is labeled this is who I am, this is what I am, and everywhere she goes, it's like she has the scarlet letter. This is what I am, this is who I am.

Audrey: 28:06

And I think often that's what we do as Christians, because perhaps we led a life that was not ideal, perhaps we led a life of sin, and so we spend so many years going around and saying, yes, I'm a Christian now, but I'm not a good person. This is the life I lived, and God says forgiven. God says that's in the past. God says you are a new person in Christ. But as long as we still identify as that old person, we will continue to fight the things, the same battles, because in our mind we are still that other person and God's saying, no, you're a new person in me, you are my child.

Audrey: 28:49

Are we going to struggle with sin? Of course we will struggle with sin as long as we are on earth, in natural bodies. We will struggle with sin as long as we are on earth, in natural bodies. But sin doesn't have to win and we can resist and we can fight and we can have victory after victory. And when we don't have victory, when we feel like we're never going to have victory, we still have a papa that we can run to, who loves us, because we're walking with him, even in our weaknesses.

Audrey: 29:17

But he wants you to know today that you belong to him, that you are not who you were, that he loves you deeply and he has a good plan for you. And I want you today to start seeing yourself as who you are redeemed by the blood, as who you are redeemed by the blood washed, cleansed, forgiven, a new creature in Christ. Isn't that beautiful? His tender mercies are new every morning, every morning, and he has enough. He's never going to run out and he loves you so much and I pray that today, hope would fill your heart as you read and meditate on that scripture. He loves you dearly. God bless, bye-bye.