Daily Manna · Day 314 · November 10
According to His Mercy
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”
Stand in a field after a long dry spell and watch the rain come. It falls on the cracked ground and on the green ground alike, and nothing in the field did anything to bring it. The ground does not have to earn its water.
That is simply how rain works, and it is the picture Paul reaches for here. "The washing of regeneration" is a water phrase. The word regeneration is also bigger than most people notice. It is the same word Jesus uses for the renewal of the whole world: "in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory." So Paul takes the word for God remaking everything and uses it for one person being washed.
Look also at what Paul rules out on the way: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done." He does not say your works fell short, the way a scoreboard would. He says they were never what paid for this in the first place, and that is a harder thing to keep believing. Then the two things he names are both done to a person: "the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Nobody in this sentence washes himself. God does the washing, "according to his mercy."
So pray today from the worst part of your month. On the day you were short with everyone, or in the week your Bible reading fell apart, bring the request you have been quietly saving for a better version of yourself. Ask for it in that state, on purpose. The right to ask has always come from His mercy, and His mercy has not changed since your last good day.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 314 is A Ransom for Many (Matthew 20:28).