Afresh: in a new or different way.

I woke up giddy this morning. There is really no other word to describe the feeling so that is the word I will use. So there I was still laying in bed trying to search for reasons for this excitement that can be compared to a little child on Christmas morning bounding down the stairs to find a room full of brightly, wrapped Christmas presents. So I began a process of elimination: 1. It's game day but I have felt game day excitement before and this wasn't it. 2. I still hadn't had my normal two mugs of coffee yet so it wasn't a caffeine buzz. 3. I had just been offered another part time job the day before, but in all honesty I wasn't that excited about adding another 20 hours to my work week. 4. It's Thursday which means the weekend is right around the corner, but I don't get excited about the weekend like this. Nothing I could think of could explain this giddiness that I was feeling. And then the Word of God was impressed upon my heart, I was reminded of two verses from the book of Lamentations. 

The faithful love of the LORD never ends! 

His mercies never cease. 

Great is his faithfulness; 

his mercies begin afresh each morning. 

-Lamentations 3:22-23 NLT

My head began to spin as I tried to wrap my mind around this idea of a love that never ends but goes on forever. Forever. A word that my human mind cannot even begin to comprehend or ever understand. If that wasn't enough I thought of the end of those verses: "his mercies begin afresh each morning." The definition of afresh is this: in a new or different way. Now think of this definition in terms of the love, grace and mercy of God. Each morning his love and mercy is new, different than it was yesterday. We don't serve a God of leftovers, but a God who gives us his first every single morning. I am reminded of the Israelites in the wilderness as I think of God's newness each day. They were in their second month of freedom from Egypt when they started to grumble. Now let me be honest for a minute, I don't think I would have lasted even two days without grumbling. Sure they were under the rule of Pharaoh but they gave up a life of comfort where they ate what they wanted to and now they were in the wilderness starving to death. I think they had every right to complain, I mean I love my food just as much as the next person. Anyways, back in the wilderness the people were complaining to Moses that they would have rather died in comfort then starve in the wilderness. That is when the LORD told Moses that he would rain down bread from heaven and that each person would have enough for just that day because the next day he would do it all over again. In the evening they ate quail and in the morning the glory of the Lord appeared and there was bread for them to eat. For FORTY years God provided food for his people without failing. So why do I question when after a bad day that God didn't provide. If he provided for the Israelites all those years won't he provide for me exactly what I need for that day? 

However, just because God provided for the Israelites in the same way doesn't mean that he will do the same for me. His mercies are afresh (new or different) each day. Our God is unpredictable and it is when we expect to experience him the same way each day that we start to miss Him. Ann Voskamp says in her book One Thousand Gifts "If God didn't withhold from us His very own Son, will God withhold anything we need?" It's true, God gave us His Son, the one he loved the most to come and save us. If he gave us Jesus, will he not provide for our every need? But his provisions aren't going to look the same as they did the day before or look the same as the person next to us. Each day God is going to give us exactly what we need in a new or different way. I am reminded of a sunrise when I think of God's mercies. A sunrise never looks the same as it did previous day. There is always something different about it but unless we train ourselves to look for that something different it is just a sunrise. My prayer is that we would start to wake up giddy each morning because the love of our Savior is too great to fathom. Giddy because we don't know how God is going to provide for us each day and we cannot wait to encounter Him in a new and fresh way. 

Blessings.