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.