11/5 Titus 3:5

⁵ . . . he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit . . .

Jesus told Simon the Pharisee that the one who is forgiven much has a greater love for the One forgiving him or her (Luke 7:47). If we want to love our Lord to a greater degree, we need to realize how much grace we have received. We may have grown up in a godly home, but we were still born with a fallen human nature. Every time we hear a testimony of someone who hit rock bottom, we marvel that God could change them. But what if you were born into that same home and circumstances?

It was the grace of God that placed us in that godly home and in the conditions that sheltered us and introduced us to Jesus. Did we ever consider that God may have planned it so because He knew if we were born in other conditions we would have never come to Him? Jesus died for each and every soul regardless of how "good" or depraved. That grace of His sacrifice in our place was the same for the murderer as it was for you and me. Every soul that comes to Jesus has received immeasurable mercy. Some just have more difficulty seeing it.

That same mercy washes us with the Word, regenerating our mind to hate the evil and love the good. The Holy Spirit renews our very nature to desire the Word and to long to be used by God for His glory. That, too, is mercy upon mercy. We didn't come up with it out of our own goodness. Our righteousness is from our Lord.

Prayer: Lord, please open my eyes to how great and loving your mercy upon me has been and continues to be so that I might love You more.