Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
indeed, our God is merciful. Ps. 116:5
Today’s verse tells us that God Himself is merciful. It’s one of His attributes and a characteristic He wants His blood bought children to develop. Make no mistake about it, now more than ever do followers of Jesus need to show the mercy that is extended to them by Almighty God our Father. But it seems the body of Christ has forgotten what true mercy is, even though Micah 6:8 says, O people, the Lord has told you what is good and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Did you get that, to love mercy?
So if mercy is a requirement of our Father, then we better know what it truly is. In the old Testament it comes from the word hesed which means, compassion, loving-kindness and Covenant faithfulness. God’s mercy never changes and is never ending, no matter what. That’s why God made His New Covenant with Jesus, not with us. He knew no matter how hard they tried the Israelites couldn’t keep the Covenant they said they would, given in the 10 Commandments. Instead the New Covenant was cut with Jesus because He was the only One who could keep it. As followers of Jesus, that now means we are joint heirs and enjoy the benefits of all He is and what He accomplished in our place. Now let me make one thing perfectily clear, mercy doesn’t mean you let sin slide, tolerate or ignore it. God will always have standards that He knows when kept will make our lives better, So it is best when we choose to walk in them. At times we will fall, and it is the mercy of God that releases us from the guilt and shame and know we stand clean before the Lord.
Now mercy isn’t something that comes natural to us humans, we more often than not want retribution or pay back for things. But as children of the Most High God who has shown us His mercy, we then are required to show it to others. How different would our world be if we would show mercy instead of judgment, if we would consider things instead of jumping to conclusions about others, if we would truly treat others as we want to be treated. If we would truly be Jesus to people and show His compassion on those who fail and fall. His loving-kindness to those who don’t deserve it, but we give show it to them anyway because they need to experience the mercy of God. Just like the people saw in Jesus when He walked among us.
Daily we need to remember His mercies are new every morning to us. Try it today, think of all the ways God has been merciful to you. Instead of receiving the justice we deserve, He gives us His love, and holds us close to His heart and encourages us to pay it forward to others. Tomorrow we will look at the 3 Results of Embracing God’s Mercy.
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