God’s Mercy And Grace Are New Every Morning
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
There were times when the Apostle Paul must have looked at himself in the mirror and wondered what in the world had happened to him. He knew that salvation from the inside is much more difficult to understand than it is from the outside. When Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth that “old things have passed away” and “all things have become new,” he had come full circle in the realization that he was no longer the man he once knew himself to be. That’s why he once urged us to move beyond our past, “forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” (Philippians 3:13)
Paul also understood that our spiritual walk is a journey, one that is fraught with disappointment and failure as much as it is with success and victory. The truth is it doesn’t matter how long we have been saved, we will always have those days when we come home and wish we could take back something we said or did.
There is a wonderful passage in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Church at Rome that has always been a source of comfort to me, especially when I have had one of those days when I didn’t feel that I acted or very much resembled the Christian I claim to be. In fact, I believe Paul had one of those days when he sat down and wrote, “It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin. So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin.” (Romans 7:21-25, TLB)
The comfort I get from that passage is not just in what the Apostle Paul said; it’s also in the fact that he wrote it twenty-four years after he was saved. In other words, while we all mature as Christians, all of us will inevitably stumble along the way, saying and doing things that are not consistent with the new life we claim to have.
As Christians, we must remember that we will never measure up to God’s standards, at least not every day. That is exactly why Christ was given to us, as a propitiation for our sins. In other words, salvation is not just about forgiving sin in our lives. That’s only one side of the coin. It’s God’s mercy and grace that convinces us to get back up the next day and try to live it differently.
Because of His Mercy
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“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy” (Titus 3:4, 5).
I do a lot of things.
Errands, baking, making meals, driving kids to activities, writing, volunteering, cleaning, balancing the books, getting the oil changed. That reminds me, I need to get the tires rotated on the van.
Add to that list praying, reading my Bible, going to church, leading a Bible study.
But it’s not enough. It is never enough. There is always one more thing that needs to be done or one more area that I could improve.
That is why it is wonderful to be reminded that God didn’t save me because I have done a lot of righteous stuff. He didn’t save me because of my hard work or my willing sacrifice or my exemplary character.
God saved me because of His mercy.
Because of His great love for me, He offered Himself – Jesus – to pay the price for my sin. And He did it for you.
Stop and think about that today. Turn it over and over in your brain. Say it out loud.
“He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.”
Be reminded of God’s grace, His great love for you, His forgiveness and His mercy.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this amazing reminder of Your goodness to me. Help me to meditate on its truth all day long. Use these words to transform my heart and mind.
Questions: How does this truth change your perspective? Who can you share this good news with today?
To Love Mercy
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“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
The second step in Micah’s description of a seeker of God is that he or she loves mercy. Mercy is both the granting of forgiveness and the refraining of giving deserved punishment. We don’t naturally love mercy; we love justice, thinking that everyone should get what they deserve.
Sometimes, we even resist mercy for ourselves. We don’t want God to just forgive us; somehow we want to pay Him for His great sacrifice. “Give us a penance,” we plead. “Demand a sacrifice, require something in exchange for salvation,” our hearts whisper.
That subtle lie is the root of legalism and contrary to what God says in both the Old and New Testaments:
- “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, an acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offering” (Hosea 6:6).
- “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).
Therefore, to love mercy begins with embracing the truth that there is nothing I did or could ever do to deserve salvation.
Once we truly understand the great mercy we have received from God, it will well up inside us overflowing to those we know, to those we love and even further, to those we don’t know and to those who are our enemies. Like Jesus, we will not want anyone to perish or be eternally separated from God. We will want everyone to receive God’s mercy.
To love mercy means we love when God has mercy on us. We love when God has mercy on our enemies. We love the idea of mercy and we love the action of mercy.
Oh Merciful God, help me to understand the amazing mercy You have shown me. Make Your mercy overflow in me, so that I will love mercy. Amen.
Questions: Why is it hard to love mercy? How will our actions and attitudes change when we love mercy?
About the Author Suzanne Benner
ANOTHER REASON FOR SHOWING MERCY
I stopped at the stop sign and looked both ways before I pulled out in front of a police cruiser coming toward the intersection. I made it across the intersection and, truthfully, had plenty of time to spare. But I just knew that officer was going to stop me, so I pulled over to the side of the road and stopped, pulled out my driver’s license and rolled down my window. He asked to see proof of insurance, then wanted to know if I thought he should let me go with a verbal warning. I said, that would be nice. I explained I was just on my way to the Dollar Store down the street. He asked where I worked. I said, “I’m a homemaker, I live four houses back down this street.”
He informed me that if he’d T-boned me, the ticket would have been 250.00 dollars. I gasped. “Which would be worse, a ticket or being T-boned?” I answered, “being T-boned.” He asked me what I would do, if I were him. I said, “I guess I’d give me a ticket, but I sure do hope you show me mercy.”
He stood there looking at my license; I figured he was trying to decide if a 62-year-old lady could afford a ticket. He stood there at least another minute, then handed my license back and said, “Go on to the Dollar Store; and drive carefully.” I can’t begin to explain the depth of relief that filled my mind when that officer let me go with a verbal warning. I literally trembled at the thought of having to pay a 250.00-dollar ticket. Just last week my husband had been given a ticket for failure to stop at a stop sign long enough. It was 149.00 dollars. I needed mercy.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Matthew 5:7
In light of this verse, I can’t help but wonder why the officer showed me mercy. Maybe he wasn’t sure if I’d stopped at the stop-sign long enough; after all, he wasn’t sitting behind me. Maybe he was going faster than the 25 MPH speed limit on that street and had a reckoning of his own. I don’t know. But this verse seems to speak to our situation–whatever reason he had for showing me mercy. Perhaps, somewhere in the past few days I’ve shown someone some undeserved mercy. I don’t know if I have or not. But I do know that I experienced mercy today and feel a desire to show mercy to others as a result. I never really looked at this verse in quite the same way as I do now. I have to ask myself, how merciful am I to others? Could I be more merciful? Could I allow for another to make mistakes and not be upset with them? This verse gives ample reason to do so, don’t you think?
PRAYER: Lord, keep us ever mindful of the new mercies You show us each day. When we are wronged, help us show the mercy we are given through You.
© Hariette Petersen, SelahV Today, 2010
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When We Need Mercy and Favor
Those we love are hurting. The reasons for their pain may often be self-inflicted. We may have prayed for God to correct them, to help them see the error of their ways; we do not wish them harm or harsh consequence. We do not want them to fall on their faces or be cast down in humiliation. Yet when God begins to move in the lives of His people, in answer to prayers, we often hurt. We hurt for our loved ones’ hurt. We empathize with their inadequacies, their futility, their fears. We agonize over their struggle, their heartache. We need mercy and favor. Are you there with a loved one, now? Like Moses, cry out on their behalf:
“Turn, O Lord! How long? Revoke Your sentence and be compassionate and at ease toward Your servants. O satisfy us with Your mercy and loving-kindness in the morning [now, before we are older], that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad in proportion to the days in which You have afflicted us and to the years in which we have suffered evil.” Psalm 90:13–15.
Moses needed mercy. He begged God to revoke his sentence and be compassionate. The consequences of our mistakes in life are often met with prayers filled with pleas for mercy and pardon. Moses asked for “gladness in proportion to the days” with which the people were afflicted…and “the years” in which they “suffered evil”. We know that God answered that prayer. We know God poured out His blessing upon His people and protected them; He sustained and empowered them. He fulfilled all His promises to them. This is God’s delight.
It brings joy to the Father in heaven to pour out His blessings upon His people. He loves us. He loved the world so much that even before they repented and turned from their wickedness, He sent His only begotten Son to stand in their place for judgment of their sin. Before we loved Him, He loved us. He did not forsake us and will not forsake us. He is faithful and true and it does not matter if we understand our circumstances, our trials, our storms; He does. He knows and never sleeps nor slumbers. He watches over us just like He does the lowly sparrow.
Later in the same Psalm it is written, “And let the beauty and delightfulness and favor of the Lord our God be upon us; confirm and establish the work of our hands—yes, the work of our hands, confirm and establish it.” Psalm 90:17.
We don’t always find ourselves in a quandry and dire circumstances because of wrong-doing or sin. Sometimes it is because of poor judgment, faulty decisions, or impulsive actions. However, it is certain when we turn to our Lord and confess our foolishness, then trust in Him instead of our own intellect and knowledge, that He will have mercy and “confirm and establish the work of our hands”. When we work with the best of intentions, with motives to honor the Lord, He will do as He did the captive Israelites. He will help us rebuild the walls that were torn down. selahV
PRAYER: Oh, Lord, we have failed. We strayed from Your perfect plan for our lives. We know we sometimes get ahead of You, choose things we should not choose. Forgive us, Lord. Bring us back into the pathway of Your will. Restore to us the days the locust has eaten. Incline Your ear to us, our Father, and hear our plea for help.
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