Mercy

And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. 

Almost everyone wants God’s mercy. However, we are in constant need of a better understanding of God’s mercy. We humans can grasp the concept of justice a lot better than the concept of mercy. We like to see and measure things so that we can explain and control them. We like to say this will happen because of that and to predict the outcome of events and personalities. 

God in His delightful ways has not allowed us to cut up and evaluate His mercy for us. His mercy is fantastic, unbelievable and overwhelming. Even the most gigantic analogies would not do justice to describe God’s mercy. 

It is not right to talk about mercy without giving a definition. For the terms of this talk, my definition is: Mercy is the kindness and favor of God that we don’t deserve.

Various examples can give us some ideas of the vastness of His mercy. For instance, if we took all the grains of sand on the earth in one big pile, it would not equal one grain of His mercy. Or it we took all the waters of the earth and put them together, it not would equal the tears that He has cried over His people. Or it one took all the stars in the sky and made them into one big light, it would only be a faint shadow of Gods mercy for us. 

Mercy is not just an event, but a condition of the heart whereupon God visits, renews and heals His people. We constantly need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us revelations of God’s mercy. It Is in seeing His mercy that we will begin to understand His justice. Mercy is an undeserved act of God, forgiving and forgetting what we did wrong while accepting us as we are. 

This would seem to be great news to us, but since we do not understand mercy, we are often afraid to use it in our lives to become closer to Him. Mercy gives us the freedom to enter into repentance. We are often afraid that taking advantage of God’s mercy will give us the freedom to enjoy sin. Mercy should lead to obedience to God and not rebellion against Him. 

If we accept God’s mercy, we will be drawn closer to the Lord; but if we question God’s mercy, we will be held back from the Lord. If we refuse God’s mercy, we will grieve the Holy Spirit. We risk losing our relationship with the Lord by refusing to accept His forgiveness. We are amazed that God gives us a second, third and fourth chance to experience His goodness, but this only leads us to experience His mercy even more deeply. It is this mercy that leads us to understand who God is and the character of God. The Lord wants us to count on His mercy not just hope in His mercy. 

We fail to give God’s mercy because we fail to understand and receive God’s mercy. God’s mercy cannot be fully understood but it can be received. More mercy leads to more love, more love leads to more mercy. Jesus wants to overpower our hearts with His amazing love and mercy. Mercy is the spiritual DNA of our life. We cannot do anything without God’s mercy toward us. When Paul says that every good gift comes from the Father of lights; yes, it comes out of God’s mercy towards us. Our whole lives are an experience of a waterfall of mercy from the Lord. 

When the Holy Spirit develops spiritual maturity in us, we hear a song of mercy that says come closer, I love you, I love you just as you are. The Lord is constantly wooing us in a relationship of love, saying, I can touch you. I can heal you. I can make you whole. The Lord’s mercy is always falling on us, but the world gives us umbrellas to keep us from getting wet. The devil wants us to forget God’s mercy. The Lord’s mercy is always falling on us, mercy by helping to remove thoughts of anger, bitterness and jealousy. This is like the spiritual umbrella that keeps God’s mercy from falling on us. 

God gives us His mercy so that we can learn to be merciful. When we are merciful, we draw people into the kingdom of God because we show the character of God. Mercy is the master key to God’s kingdom because it is the only way we can participate in it. It is only through the mercy of Jesus Christ that we have forgiveness. 

A sure sign of the Holy Spirit in us is that we are a merciful people. The deepest desire of His heart is to show mercy. God wants to show mercy first then judgment later. His forgiveness is meant to draw us into a lifestyle of forgiveness. God’s mercy looks at what we will be and does not dwell on what we are. God’s mercy dwells on what God wants for that person. Mercy is meant to give us strength when we do not know what to do or where to go. Mercy overcomes evil with good. Mercy anticipates and promotes good in people. The eyes of mercy give us strength and purpose to see victories and promote victory in others. 

God’s mercy accepts faults but does not ignore them. Gods mercy loves us too much to leave us in a state of sin. The surest way to die emotionally and spiritually is to reject mercy from God and from other people. The lack of mercy leads to a life of cruelty and judgment towards ourselves and others. This grieves the Holy Spirit and drives Him away from us. 

The more mercy is given, the more it is multiplied in others. Mercy allows us to love fiercely because God loved us that way first. God is wanting us to receive His mercy so that we can grow in His love. This mercy encourages us to become more responsible and productive Christians but does not judge us or condemn us on the basis of our performance. Mercy exists despite the consequences of life and helps us to overcome them. Mercy makes us overcomers. Mercy gives, mercy believes, mercy cheers for you, stands up and roots for you, encourages, helps you to love others. Mercy writes letters, mercy prays in the middle of the night, mercy gives hugs, mercy perseveres. 

Mercy is a heart response that speaks about love, thinks about love and gives love from God to others. Mercy is not based on reason but upon the heart of God Himself. It is tough and uncompromising when it pursues the lost and the lonely. 

The two greatest purposes of mercy are to reveal the heart of Jesus and to help the person feel the love of God. We need to ask God to place in our hearts a song of mercy towards others and towards ourselves. Mercy needs to be chosen as a way of life. It grows when we show mercy and forgiveness to others. 

Mercy is the highest form of truth because it is better to be merciful than to just be right. We are called to show the mercy that God has given us to others. As we understand God’s mercy, we will also show His mercy to others and to ourselves. 

Mercy is like a mirror. What kind of image will we see in it? The more mercy we receive from the Lord, the more we will see how much we need the Lord. The greatest example of the mercy of God is the death of his Son Jesus on the cross. As we reflect on the suffering of Christ for us, we can begin to understand a glimmer of the great love and sacrifice that God made for each one of us. 

Our ability to appreciate God’s mercy can come when we offer our own sufferings up to the Lord on a daily basis. When we suffer for a reason of glorifying Christ it makes his mercy to us even more real and alive. Mercy is a gift that is meant to help us believe in and enter into eternal life.