9.8-Oh the freshment of forgiveness, grace and mercy.

9.8-

Don’t dissipate your energy in drunkenness or worry or anything.  Worry can be overcome by the refreshment of forgiveness.  How good when God won’t take your sins into account.

1 Timothy 1.

¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, ¹³ even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; ¹⁴ and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. ¹⁶ Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those ^[l]who would believe in Him for eternal life. ¹⁷ Now to the King ^[m]eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory ^[n]forever and ever. Amen.

God you treat us as your children so well.

His mercy does not fit our thinking.

Isaiah 55.

55 “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you who have no ^[a]money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.
² “Why do you ^[b]spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.
³ “Incline your ear and come to Me.
Listen, that ^[c]you may live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
According to the faithful mercies ^[d]shown to David.
⁴ “Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
A leader and commander for the peoples.
⁵ “Behold, you will call a nation you do not know,
And a nation which knows you not will run to you,
Because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.”

⁶ Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
⁸ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰ “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
¹¹ So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
¹² “For you will go out with joy
And be led forth with peace;
The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
¹³ “Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up,
And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up,
And ^[e]it will be a ^[f]memorial to the Lord,
For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”