Morning Mercies

This morning, as I drove to work, I stopped by a gas station to get a cup of coffee. After a restless night, I had missed my alarm and made off to work without my usual cup to start the day. With a coupon for a free coffee, I filled up the small cup, added some creamer, and headed to the front checkout. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if the coupon would be accepted, and a small twinge of doubt seeded in my mind. At the register, I tentatively handed over the coupon, holding my breath hoping it wouldn’t be rejected. The clerk kindly scanned the coupon and waved to signal that I was good to go. As I walked out to my car, holding my small cup of coffee, my heart was filled with thankfulness and relief. I was thankful for this blessing from God. Even in a small cup of gas station coffee, His goodness is shown to His children (Matt. 7:11).

Isn’t it true that this is how He delights to interact with His children? The troubles of each day find us, sure enough, and begin their unrelenting harassment. Perhaps you, like myself, didn’t get a restful sleep, so your day begins with a groggy wakeup call. Perhaps when you wake up, your day starts with bodily aches and stabbing pain. Perhaps your alarm clock was your toddler informing you that they had wet the bed that morning, and you had to get up three hours before you had planned. Perhaps you woke up to a schedule that is already brimming over, and you’re unsure how you are to survive the day. However the trouble of each day finds you, our dearly beloved Brother, daily bids us to come to Him (Matt. 11:28-30). He holds out to us an abundance of new mercies and graces (Lam. 3:21-23). We come in hungry, thirsty, in need, often in a hurry. Perhaps we come in with uncertainty that we will indeed find what we need here, or worried we may be turned away, but we have come anyway. Like the leper in Matthew 8, “Lord, if You are willing...” (emphasis added). He greets our hesitation with certainty as He warmly ushers us in and to take what we need, “I am willing!...” (Matt. 8:3). We tentatively take a few new mercies off the shelf, and God kindly smiles. Rather than a harsh,” Where do you think you’re going with those?” we find He asks, “Are you sure you don’t want anything more before you go?” and, “Couldn’t you fit just a few more in your left pocket there?” (Ps. 69:11; Isa. 55:1).

In his book “The Wells of Salvation Opened,” the Puritan William Spurstowe compares the promises of Scripture to golden coins in a bag. God comes to His children with a purse of more than 3500 promises found in His Word, draws loose the string, and pours out these riches onto the table, saying,” Take my child, what you will!” It is His delight to give us good gifts, namely, to give us Himself each day. In every trouble, every trial, every pain, suffering, and joy, He is with us. He is near us. He bids us to come to Him. In Him, we have all that we need (Ps. 23:1).

When we, as His children, come before God’s throne of grace in desperate need each morning, we never have to fear that He will turn us away. Unlike coming with a wrinkled gas station coupon, we come in the full assurance of Jesus Christ, and He delights to fill our hearts with all that they need and more.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6).