God’s Mercy - A Gift to Us We Should Give to Others

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines mercy as kind or forgiving treatment of someone who could be treated harshly, to an offender, or to one subject to one's power; kindness or help given to people who are in a very bad or desperate situation; a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion.

God’s mercy is manifested in His plan of salvation. Our Lord is a merciful God (Psa 145:8) and oh, we do need his mercy. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23) from which we are not capable of saving ourselves (Tit 3:5). There is no price that we can pay, no act that we can perform, that is great enough to compensate for the just penalty that awaits all men. But by God’s mercy that penalty has been paid with His perfect gift to us, the blood of the sinless life of His Son Jesus Christ (Rom 6:23). The truly repentant man realizes these things to be true and knowing he is lost, he humbly cries out to the Lord for His mercy, for apart from it, there is no other hope (Luk 18:13, 1Ti 4:10).

God’s mercy is also manifested in the healing power of God. There are many stories in the Gospels where people who were sick, or blind, or lame, or had relatives who were demon possessed, desperately cried out in faith to Jesus for mercy, and each time He fully healed them.

In addition, mercy is also manifested in compassion and acts of kindness toward people, without regard of judgment, whether or not they are deserving of it. The story of the Good Samaritan (Luk 10:30-37) shows us a man merciful to a stranger who was in dire need. He had compassion on the stranger as soon as he saw him, before he even knew what had happened. The Samaritan did not know him - if he was rich or poor; a man of power or a peasant; or how he got into that situation, if he was an innocent victim or justly injured. At his own cost, without any regard for compensation the Samaritan met all of the stranger’s needs.

“Mercy triumphs over judgment” (Jas 2:13b). We are called to do justice but not to demand it. Furthermore we are called to love kindness (Mic 6:8). We should never let zeal for justice blind us from seeing an opportunity to show someone God's mercy. “For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy” ( Jas 2:13a).

And indeed as God’s children, we are called to be merciful as He is merciful, to be imitators of God and walk in love (Luk 6:36, Eph 5:1-2). Mat 5:7 says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Be sure that we are called to extend God’s mercy to unbelievers and to those whom we know practice things that are repugnant to us. For Jud 1:22-23 says, “ And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. “

Be encouraged that we can cry out to the Lord for mercy in any time of need, regardless of any judgment we may have of our worthiness, for nothing can separate us from the love of God (Heb 4:16, Rom 8:1, Rom 8:39).