I've been thinking lately about God's mercy and grace. This post will be about His mercy, and one in the future will be about His grace.
Allow me to begin with this obvious question, what is mercy? It says in Psalms 136:1 “O give thanks unto the Lord: for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever” This puts mercy as a certain quality in God's being. I love Webster's dictionary definition of mercy. (If you don't know Webster's 1828 dictionary is the best one there is.)
“An act or exercise of mercy or favor. Pity; compassion manifested towards a person in distress. Clemency and bounty. Charity, or the duties of charity and benevolence. Grace; favor. The act of sparing, or the forbearance of a violent act expected.”
This is pretty much saying that mercy is a pardon, or a show of compassion on someone or something. So, if God has mercy towards me then He is showing me compassion, He is showing benevolence towards me for whatever evil I have done.
Rev. D. H. Kuiper once wrote -
“The mercy of God, as a precious gem, has many facets. It is eternal. The mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, so that there never was a time when God did not burn with desire to deliver and bless His children! The mercy of God is great! It is above the heavens; it is abundant. How great that mercy must be when we consider the depths out of which it has taken us and the heights to which it has raised us. The mercy of God is sovereign and free. Mercy does not come to man, or to a particular man, because of something he has done, but it is due only to God.”
I love this quote so much! It's full of the truth that we were, maybe still are deep into sin, yet God will take us to the heights. God will save us, and He will extend His awesome mercy to us. God's mercy is eternal, He will always be merciful. God wants to show us His mercy, and when He does show that mercy to us it is great. We were nothing, yet God showed us mercy by giving us another path to take.
Arthur Pink who is you don't know was a Christian evangelist and Biblical scholar, Pink begins with a verse from Psalms 136:1, “'O give thanks unto the Lord: for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever' For this perfection” he says, “of the Divine character God is greatly to be praised. Three times over in as many verses does the Psalmist here call upon the saints to give thanks unto the Lord for this adorable attribute. And surely this is the least that can be asked for from those who have been such bounteous gainers by it. When we contemplate the characteristics of this Divine excellency, we cannot do otherwise than bless God for it. His mercy is "great", "plenteous", "tender", "abundant"; it is "from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him" (Ps. 103:17). Well may we say with the Psalmist, "I will sing aloud of Thy mercy" (59:16).”
1Kings 3:6 And Solomon said, Thou hast shown unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.
Psalm 86:5 For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
(Plenteous in mercy! What is plenteous, defined it means this, “Of or pertaining to plenty, abundance” So this also shows that God's mercy as stated earlier is eternal, for it is plenteous, and abundant.)
I believe that there are many people who do know that God is merciful. But, I also believe that the majority of those people do not know how amazing that mercy is. How blessed we are for receiving it, and how we simply do not deserve it.
Pastor John Piper once wrote, “O that we had eyes to see the mercies of God in our lives! How we would thank him, and trust him with our future. Especially if we knew the price he paid in the death of Jesus to take away our guilt and make it just for him to give everlasting mercies to sinners who trust him.”
We simply must trust in God! For God is the only truth, and light. And if you do not fully have your trust in God, and have faith that God is really there, then you should go to Him, and ask Him for that saving grace. Ask Him for mercy.
I love this other quote from Arthur Pink.
“But let our final thought be of God’s spiritual mercies unto His own people. "Thy mercy is great unto the heavens". The riches thereof transcend our loftiest thought. "For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him". None can measure it. The elect are designated "vessels of mercy". It is mercy that quickened them when they were dead in sins. It is mercy that saves them. It is His abundant mercy which begat them unto an eternal inheritance. Time would fail us to tell of His preserving, sustaining, pardoning, supplying mercy. Unto His own, God is "the Father of mercies"
I hope that I have given you some idea of how amazing God's mercy is. Also, how we don't deserve it, yet, God has freely given it to us. I would encourage you to think about these verses, and quotes and see if this week you can allow yourself to be blessed by the mercy of God. I haven't come near to covering this huge topic, so if you have any input, ideas, or questions do say them! I would love some conversation on this topic, and the next one of grace.
Once again, thank you for reading. And God bless you!
-JK
P.S. I hope you haven't minded the brevity of this post compared to the last few. :-)
2 comments:
It is truely marvelous how our God is both so just and so merciful! I believe that it is important that we as Christians display God's mercy in our lives in several ways. One is by passing it on to others. Sometimes Christians can come across as very superior and judgmental of others. What a sad,false witness of the lovingkindness of our Lord! We must remember the words of Jesus in Mat.5:7,"Blessed are the merciful,for they shall obtain mercy." I know it's a quality I admire when I see it in people.
I also think it's important not to misuse mercy. Have you ever got the feeling from some people that they think they can live their lives however they want,and God's mercy and forgivness will cover them? In Daniel 9:4 Daniel prays,"O Lord,great and awesome God,who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him,and those who keep His commandments." It is interesting how it works, for clearly if we always kept God's commandments there wouldn't be much need for His mercy,but He is faithful and just to forgive our sins when we confess them. Yet that can be so hard to do,both the confessing and the receiving of His forgiveness. When you think about it,who wouldn't want to receive God's mercy & grace? Yet I know at times when I've realized some foolish thing I've done or said,even after asking God's (and perhaps a person's)forgivness I find that I am still angry at myself,and feel miserable every time I think on the matter.It can be hard to accept God's great mercy but it is only when we do that we can enter into the joy of our Lord.
Thoughts anyone? I'd love to hear them!
Krista
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