Today I when I woke up, I lingered. I stared at the ceiling pondering how tired I was and how I could use another hour of sleep. I lingered. I instantly put on hold my daily morning duties of meeting God and doing my devotions. I lingered in my sin.

The previous morning I had read about Lot and his lingering to God’s urgent commands:

As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

Genesis 19:15,16

God is telling Lot to hurry or be dead. To wake up and run or be swept away by the wrath that God was going to unleash on the sinful city. But what did Lot do? He lingered. This is much how we linger in our sins. We linger around in things that distract us from God.

How did God respond? He rescued Lot from his lingering. The LORD had mercy on him. In the same way, the LORD has mercy on us, who are believers. He rescues us from our sin. He rescues us through his son Jesus Christ who is propitiation for our sins.

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:13,14

Let us thank God for His everlasting mercy and praise HIm for rescuing us from the wrath we deserve.