This morning as I watched the news I counted 5 ads for attorney’s offering mercy from everything from bill collectors to the “evil drug companies.”  I listened to the commentary of  the news anchors telling me how the economy was in an up swing and that it would soon create more jobs.  I listened to the rhetoric of the politicians telling me that congress had done this great thing to provide healthcare for me and my family and it only needed a little more push to get it through the Senate and we would all be taken care of.  Everyone was there offering me mercy from the ills around me.

Psalm 123
I look to you, heaven-dwelling God, look up to you for help.  Like servants, alert to their master’s commands, like a maiden attending her lady,
We’re watching and waiting, holding our breath, awaiting your word of mercy.

Mercy, God, mercy!  We’ve been kicked around long enough,  Kicked in the teeth by complacent rich men,  kicked when we’re down by arrogant brutes.

“We have been kicked around long enough,” but are we looking to God for our help? In this world we find a lot of voices that offer us mercy from the harshness of life.  But at what point do we realize that God is in Control?  At what point do we give up pretending that we have a say, that we have an option for our own selves?

The Psalmist put it “Like servants to a master’s command.”  When we have our relationship with God correct we have the ability to put our trust to put our faith in Him. When we have the wrong attitude about God, we have to look at ourselves for that help… not a pretty solution considering how often we have messed up our lives.

Look at that next part, “We’re watching and waiting, holding our breath, awaiting your word of mercy.” When we have the right relationship to God in our lives, we will have the right response. The Psalmist didn’t say that we were to be anxious to see God’s response to our pleas, he didn’t say that we were to be going around telling anyone about our requests, He said we are to wait,  “holding our breath.”

How we react to our circumstances is directly related to our relationship with God.  Feeling kicked around?  Await mercy.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth

Psalm 121:1,2
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth

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If you are not a Christian, then you face trouble alone.

Isaiah 10: 3
What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?

The world offer’s us many things for our safety.  We confide in our own strength to seek mercy and salvation from hard times. But we are left with the fact that no matter how smart we are, no matter how talented we are, no matter how rich we are, no matter how poor we are, no matter who or what we are, no matter how religious we are, no matter how spiritual we are… we fall short in our relationship with God.

Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Everything I can do will fail  Every protection I try and set up, every guard against disaster, every fence I build, every home I fortify.

I love the west, I miss it dearly.  The best site that I hold in my memory is  “riding fences.”  To keep the cattle from wandering the rancher’s decided to put up fences around their grazing land. (Johnson County Cattle wars was fought because of the barbed wire springing up across the land blocking the open range) When they first strung the fences  the barbed wire was shinny and new, it was taunt between the poles.  Over time things change.  Ranchers found their fences broke down, poles rotted, creeks dug deeper channels below the fences.

A cowboy a ranch hand was assigned the duty of riding fences.  To ride looking for the break in the protection.  No matter how they would build the fences, something always failed, the cattle always got out.

James 1:11
For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.

The best things we can do offer us little protection, and never lasting protection.  What we do fails.  What we do is imperfect.  Who do you run to for help?  God calls you to repentance today.

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Is God working in your life today?

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