The Mercy of God
Oh,
the MERCY of God. Take a moment, right
now, to close your eyes and meditate on the incredible mercy of God. When you’re done, I’ll still be right here.
Selah.
(Pause, and think about that!)
If
you’ve done what I asked, I imagine that, like me, tears squirted in your eyes,
and you felt the beautiful goosebumps that indicate the brush of angels wings,
and the arms of a loving Father wrapped about you.
Oh—the
MERCY of GOD!
Recently
one morning, as I was studying and praying, the thought of God’s precious,
undeserved, loving mercy washed over me, and I couldn’t do anything but
weep. It’s happening again, even
now. Every descriptive word I can
imagine to describe His mercy is so woefully inadequate. That Christian song, “Indescribable”, is in
my spirit at this moment. It’s humbling,
and awe-inspiring, and far from making me feel like a worthless dirty dog, it
makes me feel safe. Cherished. Protected.
Favored. I am aware of my flaws—or
at least most of them. I know I have
blind spots; we all do. But like a
loving parent, He lets me know that I can do better, with His help, and that He
loves me anyways. I am a work in
progress. And that’s okay.
Oh,
the MERCY of God. His magnificent, limitless mercy.
It’s
this mercy that causes me to ponder some deep truths. I know I keep talking about an offended
spirit, but if there’s one thing that should inspire us to let go of offense—it should be the thought of the
breathtaking MERCY that He has offered to each of us, if we would receive it.
Ephesians
4 is speaking powerfully to my spirit this morning. Over twenty years ago, I decided to memorize this
chapter, because it holds some powerful truths. Often, when I’m considering a situation in my
life, phrases and principles contained within will leap to mind. “…walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness…forbearing
one another in LOVE;” (vs. 1b-2) “One
Lord, one faith, one baptism,” (vs. 5) “That
we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about by
every wind of doctrine…” (vs. 14a) “But
speaking the truth IN LOVE…” (vs. 15) “And
be renewed in the spirit of your mind;” (vs. 23) See what I mean? SO MANY powerful nuggets,
plugged into one chapter. And I really haven’t scratched the surface.
This
morning, however, this is what impacted me. Forgive the commentary I’m going to
insert occasionally.
Ephesians
4:26-32 KJV
26 Be ye angry, and sin not:
let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
[You might be angry, but keep your tongue in check, and deal with
your anger. Don’t carry it with you over
night.]
27 Neither give place to
the devil.
[Because that ol’ dirtbag is just LOOKING for a place to get in
and work his mischief, and nothing works better on his behalf than our offended
spirit.]
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour,
working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him
that needeth.
29 Let no corrupt
communication proceed out of your mouth,
[In a nutshell, you don’t need to run your mouth…about nothin’. No murmuring, no complaining, no angry
words. You don’t go looking for people
to share the story with, to commiserate with.
You just SHUT. YO. MOUTH. And you
take it to your closed prayer closet, to GOD.
He’s the only one you need to talk it over with.]
[I just re-read that, and I realize how harsh that sounds. But God’s the only one who can do anything
about it anyways…so just cut out the middle man, and give it to God.]
but that
which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace
unto the hearers.
[SPEAK LIFE.]
30 And grieve not the holy
Spirit of God, whereby ye
are sealed unto the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking,
be PUT AWAY FROM YOU, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to
another, TENDERHEARTED,
forgiving one another, even as God
for Christ's sake hath
forgiven YOU.
So,
when we nurse our spiritual and emotional wounds, when we tell the tale of who
offended us—we grieve the Spirit of
God! He grieves—He mourns, in a sense, and is bothered that we can’t let go. That’s why Paul tells us to “Let it Go”. Bitterness. Wrath. Anger.
Clamour. (I’m glad you asked: the
Greek word here is krauge. It means outcry, crying. Let me clear it up: whining would probably be a good synonym.) Malice. It’s all supposed to be PUT AWAY from each of
us.
And
sometimes, the hits keep coming. That’s
when it’s especially hard. Keeping the
door open to the offender feels like madness.
Like we enjoy being
wounded. But notice the last verse: we
are to be KIND one to another.
Tenderhearted. Which means,
instead of hardening our heart to our brothers and sisters in the Lord, when
one has done us wrong, we remain vulnerable, and soft, and REACHABLE.
WHY
should we?
Because
the way the verse ends makes it clear: “even
as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven YOU.”
Oh,
the mercy of God!
That’s
when it all melts away for me—when I realize what He has forgiven ME of, I just
can’t hang on to my anger with my brother.
When I think about the way He reached out to ME, and extended ME His
undeserved mercy and grace, His precious salvation, how can I resist showing
the same mercy to my sister?
Lamentations
3:22-23 says it more beautifully than I ever could:
22 It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not
consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning:
great is thy faithfulness.
I
am not perfect. I make plenty of
mistakes. I’m guilty, I’m sure, of not
being sensitive, or loving enough, or aware of things I ought to be aware
of. There are times when ambivalence gets
the best of me, and selfishness takes hold.
Like I said before, I AM A WORK
IN PROGRESS.
So—how
come I expect perfection from others?
Isn’t that unrealistic? Hypocritical? Arrogant?
Let.
It. GO.
The
psalmist of Psalm 89, Maschil, had the right idea.
Psalm
89:1 KJV
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever: with my mouth will I make known thy
faithfulness to all generations.
Because
the only thing worth talking about, ‘gossiping’ about, singing about, spreading
around IS the Mercy of God. If we would
make His mercies known to all generations—we wouldn’t have time for anything
else.
Even
nursing a wounded spirit.
Selah. Think about THAT.
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