“Because of the LORD’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
This verse is one of the reasons why I enjoy doing Bible study in the morning, preferably as the sun comes up to escort in another day. Every morning, God’s infinite mercies are new. With the dawn of each day, I get another opportunity to put the Christian walk into practice. Each day I get a fresh supply of mercies from God’s endless stock.
Additionally, today’s mercies are for today’s troubles. They are not for yesterday’s woes, nor for tomorrow’s trials. God asks us to abide with Him daily. If He supplied us with tomorrow’s mercies, we wouldn’t come to Him. We would try to be self-sufficient, tell God we had this under control now and He could focus on bigger problems that needed His attention. God doesn’t want that. He desires a relationship with us because He loves us, not us growing up to be independent of Him. He is big enough to tend to the bigger problems in the world and smallest of details with us. So He only supplies us with enough mercy for one day. We have to trust Him and believe His promise that He will be faithful.
Why is mercy important? What does it mean? Mercy in the Hebrew is racham which means “mercy, to have compassion, womb, bowels, pity, tender love.” Mercy is an act of compassion. Compassion is “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” We have been stricken by sin and live in a fallen world. Suffering is unavoidable. No matter how strong your Christian walk you will experience suffering along the way.
However, as children of the Most High God we can know that the One who is in control has such tender love for us that He is moved deeply to the inner essence of His being and has a strong desire to alleviate our suffering. So He extends to us mercy. We may deserve to reap the consequences of our sin, but He extends to us His mercy. What a relief that God forgives us when we fail Him and doesn’t hold it against us!
In Matthew 18:21-35, Peter asked Jesus how many times shall he forgive his brother when he sins against him. Jesus answered by telling him the parable of the merciless servant. A king wanted to settle accounts with his servants. One servant owed a king ten thousand talents, but could not pay. The master ordered that he, his wife, his children, and all he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees saying, “Be patient with me and I will pay back everything.” The master took pity on him, canceled the debt, and let him go.
However the servant went out and prosecuted another servant who owed him a smaller debt. He didn’t extend the same mercy that he had received. He only extended judgment. He had begged the king to be patient with him, and the king was patient so he could extend mercy and forgive the servant’s debt.
Mercy, patience, and forgiveness all go together. Mercy fuels patience. When we remember that we have received so much mercy and had a debt we can never repay, we are filled with gratefulness and the knowledge that we need to be patient with others. This is how we are able to not let others behavior and attitudes ruin our day. We release frustration and can be patient with them. We pray for them as they continue on their journey to conform to the image of Christ or simply be more like Jesus.
One question I ask myself is “In light of eternity and standing in God’s throne room, how much does this matter into the balance holding people accountable so they can grow more like Christ and their need for mercy and compassion extended to them?” We may have a right to be mad and right to avenge how we have been wronged. But if bitterness grows in our hearts by us holding their wrongs against them, then we lose and the evil one wins. Harboring unforgiveness is like drinking the poison ourselves and hoping to punish the other person. Remember God want to reveal Himself through us, not through us standing up for our rights and playing judge.
So my friend, is there anyone that you need to extend mercy? Or have you forgotten much you need the mercy of God? Let’s spend some time praising Him and reflecting on the great mercy and compassion of God.
Lamentations 3:22-23
This verse is one of the reasons why I enjoy doing Bible study in the morning, preferably as the sun comes up to escort in another day. Every morning, God’s infinite mercies are new. With the dawn of each day, I get another opportunity to put the Christian walk into practice. Each day I get a fresh supply of mercies from God’s endless stock.
Additionally, today’s mercies are for today’s troubles. They are not for yesterday’s woes, nor for tomorrow’s trials. God asks us to abide with Him daily. If He supplied us with tomorrow’s mercies, we wouldn’t come to Him. We would try to be self-sufficient, tell God we had this under control now and He could focus on bigger problems that needed His attention. God doesn’t want that. He desires a relationship with us because He loves us, not us growing up to be independent of Him. He is big enough to tend to the bigger problems in the world and smallest of details with us. So He only supplies us with enough mercy for one day. We have to trust Him and believe His promise that He will be faithful.
Why is mercy important? What does it mean? Mercy in the Hebrew is racham which means “mercy, to have compassion, womb, bowels, pity, tender love.” Mercy is an act of compassion. Compassion is “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” We have been stricken by sin and live in a fallen world. Suffering is unavoidable. No matter how strong your Christian walk you will experience suffering along the way.
However, as children of the Most High God we can know that the One who is in control has such tender love for us that He is moved deeply to the inner essence of His being and has a strong desire to alleviate our suffering. So He extends to us mercy. We may deserve to reap the consequences of our sin, but He extends to us His mercy. What a relief that God forgives us when we fail Him and doesn’t hold it against us!
In Matthew 18:21-35, Peter asked Jesus how many times shall he forgive his brother when he sins against him. Jesus answered by telling him the parable of the merciless servant. A king wanted to settle accounts with his servants. One servant owed a king ten thousand talents, but could not pay. The master ordered that he, his wife, his children, and all he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees saying, “Be patient with me and I will pay back everything.” The master took pity on him, canceled the debt, and let him go.
However the servant went out and prosecuted another servant who owed him a smaller debt. He didn’t extend the same mercy that he had received. He only extended judgment. He had begged the king to be patient with him, and the king was patient so he could extend mercy and forgive the servant’s debt.
Mercy, patience, and forgiveness all go together. Mercy fuels patience. When we remember that we have received so much mercy and had a debt we can never repay, we are filled with gratefulness and the knowledge that we need to be patient with others. This is how we are able to not let others behavior and attitudes ruin our day. We release frustration and can be patient with them. We pray for them as they continue on their journey to conform to the image of Christ or simply be more like Jesus.
One question I ask myself is “In light of eternity and standing in God’s throne room, how much does this matter into the balance holding people accountable so they can grow more like Christ and their need for mercy and compassion extended to them?” We may have a right to be mad and right to avenge how we have been wronged. But if bitterness grows in our hearts by us holding their wrongs against them, then we lose and the evil one wins. Harboring unforgiveness is like drinking the poison ourselves and hoping to punish the other person. Remember God want to reveal Himself through us, not through us standing up for our rights and playing judge.
So my friend, is there anyone that you need to extend mercy? Or have you forgotten much you need the mercy of God? Let’s spend some time praising Him and reflecting on the great mercy and compassion of God.
Pray with me: Lord, we praise You! Thank You that Your mercies are new every morning. You use our hard lessons of yesterday so we will learn how to be more like Your Son while giving us fresh mercy and compassion. Thank You for being the perfect parent who is not preparing us to grow up and be independent of You, but prepares us to come home to live with you forever.
Don’t let us give the enemy a doorway for him to take advantage of us. Prick our hearts about who we need to extend mercy and forgive. Imprint in our minds that our forgiveness doesn’t have the same power as Yours to absolve people from sins. In Jesus’ mighty and wonderful Name, we pray. Amen.
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