Compliments of the season and Merry Christmas in Advance.

What a Joy that God always makes His grace visible in Christ, who includes us as partners of His endless triumph. Through our yielded lives He spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere we go.

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. — Lamentations 3:22–23

They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. — Jonah 2:8

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. — Genesis 39:21

There is a factor at work in a believer’s life that is not just reliant on principles we engage in our day-to-day walk with God, and this factor is His Mercy. This is an overriding spiritual capital at work in our lives — it is so important that there is a daily allocation of it. There are a few things that the LORD offers a daily subscription to us and one of them is His mercy. Scriptures tell us that one of the things God is eternally committed to bringing to our doorstep every morning is His mercy.

There is no expiration date on God’s mercy toward us. His mercies are new every morning in that they are perpetual and always available to those in need. We have our ups and downs, and “even youths grow tired and weary” (Isaiah 40:30), but God is faithful through it all. With the dawn of each day comes a new batch of compassion made freshly available to us. God’s compassion is poured out from an infinite store; His mercies will never run out. Some mornings we get up on different sides of the bed, but even there we find God’s mercies awaiting us.

But we see from Jonah 2:8 that those who observe lying vanities forsake THEIR own daily allocation of mercy.

One of the ways we observe lying vanities is by being Jealous of others (who are probably just obtaining their own mercy)

Let’s look at an example of a man to whom God showed mercy — Joseph (Genesis 39:21–23).

God showed Joseph mercy and apparently, Joseph saw it because he was focused on it and wasn’t observing something else (Lying vanities).

Mercy shows up sometimes as responsibility.

While it may seem counterintuitive that more work would be a demonstration of mercy, God’s mercy can sometimes manifest in ways that challenge our conventional thinking.

In the case of Joseph, despite all he went through, he was given responsibilities and opportunities to demonstrate his leadership and integrity. This ultimately was part of the sending protocol that God engaged Joseph in (Psalm 105:17–22).

Sometimes the things we are praying to God to deliver us from is what God is using to extend mercy to us.

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. — James 1: 2–4 (NLT)

Sometimes the mercy of God keeps us in a zone until we learn a particular lesson and after we learn, we move.

For Joseph;

i. He moved from one who couldn’t interpret his dreams (Genesis 37:5–10) to;

ii. One who could interpret other people’s Dreams but couldn’t proffer solutions (Genesis 40:9–19) and then moved to;

iii. one who could interpret others’ dreams and proffer solutions (Genesis 41:17–36) even when his own dreams had not been actualised.

For Israel;

God took them through the wilderness so that they may know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:2–4)

Instead of blaming Satan and blaming people, sometimes we are to ask ourselves what the lesson is I am to learn in this season — I say again, Sometimes the mercy of God keeps us in a zone until we learn a particular lesson and after we learn, we can move on.

God’s mercy might not always look like what we expect, and sometimes, it may require us to trust in His goodness and provision, even when circumstances seem difficult or challenging.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever:

To Him who alone does great wonders, For His mercy endures forever;

So, take your own allocation of Today’s Mercies.

Have a Blessed Week!

Grace, Growth, and Glory.

Ayomide Arowele

IG/X: @thearowele