God Gives You a Blank Canvas Every Morning
Each morning, when you rise, the Lord presents you with a blank canvas. While you sleep through the night, He scrubs off whatever mistakes you make the day before. All of the misplaced brush strokes and wrong uses of color. Then, He places the clean, brand new canvas before you to paint on that day.
The Bible says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23, ESV).
But what does it mean for God’s mercies to be new every morning?
The difference between God’s mercy and grace is often confused, though they are commonly both present in someone’s life. Mercy is when God withholds giving us what we rightly deserve while grace is when God gives us what we do not deserve.
For God to show mercy means that in His compassion and kindness toward humanity, He extends undeserved grace and forgiveness to sinners and withholds His punishment from us.
His greatest act of mercy was sending His only Son, Jesus, to the cross to take on the full punishment for our sins — a punishment we rightfully deserved. This mercy is endless and available to all people.
In this act of mercy, we are forgiven for our sins and given the gift of eternal life in the presence of God. This mercy is imparted to every believer at the time of their salvation and continues to offer hope to them from that point forward.
But for God’s mercies to be new every morning means that the forgiveness we received at our salvation is renewed to us each day. Each new day brings its own trials and sufferings, and in each of those hardships, the Lord’s mercy is being extended to us, fresh and new for that day’s needs.
Yesterday’s battles with sin may continue, but the failure to resist acting on our fleshly desires and sinning against God does not have to continue. Just because we give in to temptation once, does not mean it has to continue and become a pattern in our life.
The Lord in His mercy strengthens us to fight our sin and resist temptation. This is true for us every day of our lives. God wipes our slate clean and renews us daily.
No matter what failures result from our yesterday, they do not define the outcome of our today. God gives you a blank canvas every morning. Rest in His renewed mercies for you today.
