To be or not to be: Merciful
Micah 6:8 (NKJV) 8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you, But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
Hebrews 4:14-16 14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
How often do we consider the mercy of God? We know that grace, in its simplest form, is unmerited favor. In other words, God gives us what we can not earn and do not deserve.
Conversely, mercy is God sparing us from what we deserve. And what do we deserve? We deserve the penalty of death. But while we were dead in our sins, Jesus came, paid the penalty, and reconciled us to the Father. And that is called mercy.
The issue for many of us is that we are eager to receive mercy, but we are not always ready to show others the same. Why? I think we simply cannot find it within ourselves to forgive multiple times, but often this is what mercy requires.
Additionally, we want mercy to be conditional upon the one who offended us being penitent, perhaps even begging us for forgiveness. But pay attention to Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:7 (NKJV) 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Showing mercy is not dependent upon another’s words or actions. How hard is that? We simply cannot live into the righteousness of Jesus without appealing to Him daily for HIS strength, HIS guidance, HIS unconditional love.
May we who have received abundant mercy from God, choose to give mercy to others for no other reason than because we can.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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- Tagged: righteousness, mercy, daily
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