Mercy: September 20, 2012

TODAYS WORD FOR THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20. 2012.

MERCY

DEFINITION:

Compassionate leniency toward an enemy or a wrong doer; a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion; withholding of the punishment our sins deserve.

SCRIPTURE:

So then it does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. Romans 9:16

But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. Ephesians 2:4

He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. Titus 3:5

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

The dictionary defines mercy as compassionate leniency toward an offender. We have all sinned against God so we are all offenders and in need of God’s mercy. God is truly a God of mercy and of love.

In I Samuel 24 we read of David showing mercy to Saul. David was being pursued by Saul and his army and Saul wanted to kill David. Saul entered a cave where David and his men were hiding. David managed to creep up unnoticed on Saul and cut off a piece of Saul’s robe. David could have easily killed Saul, but instead he showed mercy to Saul and let him escape. When Saul was made aware of David’s act of mercy, Saul repented and reconciled with David. Like Saul, we should be so grateful for the mercy God has shown for us that we desire to repent of our sins and be reconciled to God.

Although we are undeserving, because we are all sinners, He showed His mercy to us by sending His Son to this earth to save us from death, which is the punishment we deserve.  He sacrificed His only son to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and then Jesus arose from the grave and soon went to Heaven to prepare for us a place to live for eternity. God further showed His mercy to us by sending His Holy Spirit to guide us as we live on this earth.

All through the Bible, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, God’s mercy is displayed. Yes, we must agree with Paul, “God is rich in mercy!” (Ephesians 2:4)

In Genesis 18 we read of Sarah laughing at God’s promise, to give her a son in her old age, because she doubted God. God had mercy on her, in spite of her doubt, and gave her the promised son. Time after time the people of Israel turned away from God and sinned against Him, but God had mercy on them and continued to love them and bless them. This was the standard of mercy that God continued to give all the generations that followed.

In Psalm 18:21 it reads that God gives mercy to the merciful. God wants us to be merciful to those our lives touch each day and He promises to be merciful to us. We as Christians serve an awesome God who continually shows unmerited mercy to us. All of us can be so thankful that God’s mercy does not depend on our desires or efforts (Romans 8:16). There is nothing we can do to earn it; because God’s mercy does not depend on the righteous things we have done (Titus 3:5).

Our children loved to participate in sports. We coached several of their teams because it gave us a chance to teach important life values to our children and their peers. We taught them about teamwork and what it meant to win and lose. We taught how to play fair, the value of practice and hard work. And on a few occasions we even dealt with mercy. In youth sports there is a “MERCY RULE” which brings a game to an early end when one team has such a big lead that it is evident the losing team has no chance to win. This spares the losing team the humiliation of suffering a greater defeat. We taught them to think about how they would feel if they were the losing team so that they would understand that it was the right and the compassionate thing to show mercy to them.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Philippians 1:6.

Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

PRAYER:

How grateful I am for the mercy that You showed me and my family by giving us the blessed hope of spending an eternity with You in heaven. Help each of us in my family today to show mercy to others just like You have shown us mercy.