Daily Devotion
Waves of Mercy
By
Byron Bohnert
Picture for a moment the scene of ocean waves continually rolling onto a long sandy beach. The Lord recently revealed to me that His mercy is exactly like those waves, constant and never ceasing.
Lamentations 3:22-23 says,
“The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day" (NKJV).
From the scripture above it is easy to observe that without the mercy of God, we’d be finished. For God in His anger can be as fierce as a hurricane and then in His mercy become like a peaceful ocean wave.
God loves us so much and is saddened when we intentionally do things contrary to His will. The pain isn’t surface level with God, but cuts deep within.
Do you remember how crushed you felt the last time a loved one hurt you? If you are like me, you were highly disappointed at their neglect for your feelings. We’ve all been there before. Then, while you might have been angry with the person who wronged you, you were also willing to forgive them because of their heart-felt apology.
Now, by placing God in the same scenario, perhaps we can gain a better understanding of the Father’s heart. Yes, God desires to demonstrate His mercy in our lives. His mercy gives us another chance even after we’ve blown it.
The awesome thing about God is to know what He says in 1 John 1:9,
“If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong" (NLT).
I personally enjoy being at the coast and relaxing to the sound of waves crashing upon the seashore. Whenever I return from spending time there, I am always refreshed and renewed. The ocean can be a treacherous place, but it also shares similar characteristics with its Creator. Everything on earth carries the evidence of God’s character and handiwork; however, to me the ocean is one of the greatest representatives in all of creation. As with God, the ocean is a source of life, strength and tranquility.
Ocean waves in particular, are truly amazing. Each time a wave washes upon the beach it carries away a
portion of sand from one place to another. As a result, the waves, sand and beach will always change. God deals with our sin in the same way the ocean deals with sand. He washes over us with His waves of mercy and takes away our sins.
Audio Adrenaline illustrates this clearly in a segment of their song, Ocean Floor: The lyrics speak of the songwriter's sins, how they haunt him and are ugly. Then it makes the analogy of these sins being washed away by large ocean waves (God's forgeiveness) and they are as gone as the ocean floor is when wiped away by the churning surf.
Every day, God wants us to truly experience His mercy and do what 1 Chronicles 16:34 tells us,
“Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever" (NKJV).
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Byron Clay Bohnert’s writings inspire people to look at life through the eyes of Faith, a perspective that oftentimes helps us focus on what’s really important and forego those that are not. On January 16, 2009, Byron took up new residence with our Lord in heaven. During his 29 years on this earth, he enjoyed sharing and encouraging people through Devotions he wrote for CBN.com and other publications and his personal witness just loving Christ, his family, his church and people he never met.
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