2025-08-22
Good morning, Dear Ones,
Today, I have been commanded by the Holy Spirit to write about mercy-God’s mercy and the mercy we should have. Luke 6: 36 tells us, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” For some people, that’s a tall order. For others, they think that they have no experience with God’s mercy. MT 9: 13 directs us to the people on whom the Son focuses first. “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” 1 JN 1: 9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Open and honest confession of our sins demands humility and a desire to be spiritually cleansed. One recognizes the importance of knowing God’s will and is trying to obey it.
In MT 5-7, we can find Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. This teaching contains the Beatitudes [MT 5: 3-12] and within them is MT 5: 7-8, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” God’s will for us is clear here. He is eager for us to mend our ways and to eventually gain eternal life with Him. Our time on earth is a testing ground, because God has yielded the power to us to decide if we will conform to His teaching or not. We already know from HE 4: 13 that nothing escapes God’s attention. However, we shouldn’t get the idea that God is watching over each of us with the hope of catching us in a sin and punishing us for it. Instead, He watches over us to see what our needs might be, in the hope that we will take the time to learn His will and turn to Him. Another way of expressing God’s attitude toward His human creation is that He loves us and wants us to make the choices necessary to qualify us for a blissful and eternal friendship with Him—to do what is in our own best eternal interests. No human loves us as God loves us, as we were created in His own image [GN 1: 27].
When God considered the predicament that inherited and self-committed, unconfessed sin put us in, He realized a solution to this problem had to be found. This inherited sin arises from the original sin of Adam and Eve [GN 3: 1-6] and from sins we add to our inheritance during our earthly lives. Rather than requiring that we make sacrifices, He decided to command His Son, Jesus Christ, to make the sacrifice of His own physical life on the cross. It meant that temporarily the Son would be cut off from the Father and go to hell for three days. It is only after the Lord Jesus was resurrected to heaven that His temporary misery would come to an end. In obeying the Father, the Son’s sacrifice becomes a propitiation (atonement) for mankind’s sin—a way out of sure spiritual death for mankind without it. Christ’s blood shed opened the heavenly Holy of Holies once and for all, obtaining eternal redemption [HE 9: 12-14]. Christ, by obeying the Father, showed the ultimate mercy toward mankind!
Delving into God’s heart is demonstrated in LAM 3: 22-23, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Our experience with our Maker bears this mercy out, as we learn in HE 4: 16, “Let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we many receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” When we consider what has happened in our own lives, we must be grateful for the many times our faith in the Lord Jesus has seen us through our challenges.
PRAYER: O Lord, we must be willing to acknowledge the mercy You show us in our lives. Moreover, it is necessary for us to understand Your will that we should do the same for our fellow humans. Modeling the attitudes that our Lord Jesus demonstrated, helps us to conform to Your desire for us to have sweet and eternal fellowship with You in heaven. Your love for us is the only logical response You can make for creations in Your own image. We ask You to help us overcome our sinful nature, and to gain Your perspective in deciding how to behave toward You and our fellow man. PS 103: 11-13, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who have reverence for Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who love Him…” We thank and praise You, O Lord, for the mercy You show us. In the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: We are often in the midst of quarrels, disagreements, opposition, lack of cooperation, and outright greediness in our lives. However, we often forget that our response to this unfriendly, uncomfortable behavior is under our control. Our emotions are often at the basis of this problem. Little to poor communication between us and another party (or other parties) or even between us and God exacerbates the situation. This need for communication, problem solving, and forgiveness is the topic for next week’s devotion. We must remember: COL 3: 12, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” These are essential to being a merciful person. Praise and thanksgiving be to God!
Grace Be with You Always,
Lynn, JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2025. All Rights Reserved.
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