To Love Mercy
Is your best never good enough? We can pray for you.
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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