Hope

Isaiah 6:5-7
5 Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”

When driven by conviction to the point of crushing under the weight of sin because of seeing the Holiness of God and the state of my own heart, crying out for mercy is an act of hope. It is the belief that God is loving and merciful that drives the soul to cry out for reprieve. It is the belief that God longs for reconciliation that cries out for mercy. If the sould did not have hope, the weight of sin would crush and the soul would sear its conscience and turn from the One who could save it. Hope believes, hope cries out, hope receives mercy.