Daily writing prompt

Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

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Speaking plainly about playfulness: Guilt cuts the guts out of playfulness. The more mercy a person receives the more forgiving and playful he will be. Playfulness is glorious day-by-day celebration of guilt gone away. Give and receive mercy throughout the day and soon you will be playing like never before!

Little children in their innocence are the most playful people on the planet. But as humans grow and rebel, we get to know guilt, and after experiencing its shame we’re no longer the same. Our heart shuts down and feels too heavy to play.

No one has a right to mercy; it’s always undeserved. God’s mercy is His loving and free gift offered to us because it was purchased by the blood, death on the Cross, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let God wash away your guilt in the sea of His mercy so your heart can sail and rejoice with His joy. Let His mercy remove the misery of your shame. God wants to rescue you from the bad stuff you’ve accumulated in your life.

If you’ve ever been forgiven of something, you’ve seen the living God at work and experienced a surge of His joyful playfulness. Why settle for the misery of your guilt when you can live in the ongoing celebration of God’s mercy? God’s mercy is greater than your misdeeds and your miseries.

When the runaway rebellious son in the Bible returned to His father it was a demonstration of the guilt-free party time of the Father’s manifest mercy. Have you experienced that kind of mercy party? 

Forgiveness
Is the Father’s business.
That’s what Jesus
Was all about.
He bought it
With His blood
So He can now remove
The stones from human hearts
And tenderly replace
Them with His grace.

Let your heart
Be His house,
A nursery
For God’s mercy.
Learn to forgive
And be forgiven
So Christ’s garden
Can be found
Flourishing on
What was once
Stoney ground
And the fruit
Of His Spirit
May always abound
Within you.

“I love the Lord, for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy. Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.” (Psalms 116:1-2.)