Feb 9 – Lord Have Mercy, Christ Have Mercy, Lord Have Mercy on Me

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob

Much like Peter, when he met Jesus, I find myself saying “Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man!” These are surprising words for most of us. This reaction is unnatural. We are not prone to admit our failures. In fact, we are trained throughout life to learn how to cover up our failures. But, if we are going to be a people who will seek the Face of God, we need to have clean hands and a pure heart. We need to make confession like Peter that we are in fact a sinful people.

This morning as we were praying for the Lord’s glory to be shown to us I had the following exchange with the Holy Spirit.

HS: Have you Loved the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?
Me: No.
HS: Have you been perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect?
Me: No.
HS: Have you had in yourself the mind that was in Christ Jesus?
Me: No.
HS: Have you waited on the Father to hear his direction for all things, just as Jesus did?
Me: No.
HS: Have you prayed for these things to be developed in your life?
Me: No.
HS: Have you at least developed a compassion for the lost and dying in the world?
Me: No. I haven’t done any of those things.

Then for the next thirty or forty-five minutes the Spirit led me through major explicit sins and I confessed them before the Lord. The whole time I felt completely at peace. It is his kindness that leads us to repentance. It is in the safety of His loving embrace that we are able to confess our sin. I sincerely hope that my shame might bring about greater glory for His Name.

The questions He asked were not asked to humiliate me. They were asked out of Love. I’ve been crying out for the past 30 days or so to know more of God’s heart, to be able to gaze upon his beauty. These are the attributes that he desires from those who seek him. I don’t feel disqualified. The opposite is true. I feel like the bar has been raised. He has laid before me the training model for those who desire to have clean hands and a pure heart, those who would seek His Face.

I remember the first time I tried to run a mile I thought I was going to die. But after a couple years of training I was running 10 miles every Saturday. To this day I can lace up and run a couple miles even though I’m sorely out of shape. Growth in the spirit is the same way. I can’t run 10 miles in the Spirit today. But, I’ve seen the race track. It’s time to start training in the Spirit

Not by Might, not by Power, but by My Spirit says the LORD