To Live is Christ — sharing His mercy

Facebook gets heat for its default settings. Those who don’t know how to change them can be giving others personal information that they would rather not be shared.

Today, I shared with someone my limited knowledge of how to set up and manage a particular type of blog. This online service also has default settings that need to at least be considered and sometimes tweaked.

Default settings usually work, but when it comes to being a Christian, my devotional reading for today suggests that my default settings need to be changed.

Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. (Proverbs 3:3–4)

Mercy and truth, or as yesterday’s post uncovered, love and faithfulness are what God wants as my natural first response, my default settings. However, the adjustments required are not as simple as checking a box or selecting an option.

The settings that I was born with are purely self-centered. I respond to people with me-first, apathy, revenge, and a host of other selfish ways to think. When someone does something I don’t like, my human response is certainly not mercy and love.

However, Jesus Christ came into my life and added some alternate behaviors. I cannot do them myself, but with His help, it is possible for an old grouch like me to be merciful and to love others. Most times this requires asking Him, but sometimes being merciful shows up spontaneously.

I remember the first time that happened. I was in a movie theater buying popcorn before the film started. A little boy was there with his mother. He was horsing around and managed to spill his popcorn all over the floor. His immediate look of dismay showed me that he regretted his behavior. It was obvious that mom didn’t have the extra cash to buy him another order of an already over-priced treat. Without thinking, I gave him my popcorn.

But showing mercy is much more difficult when the person who needs it has done something mean or heartless to me. If someone cuts me off in traffic, will I give him a break at the next intersection? If someone slapped my face, would I turn the other cheek?

Mercy is holding back whatever someone deserves. This is what God does for me. I deserve eternal punishment for my sins — far worse in His eyes than rude driving or hitting another person. I have disobeyed and even ignored Almighty God, hurt others, and been greedy and thought only about myself.

Yet He is merciful. He could have sealed my destiny based on my behavior, but instead He has changed my destiny based on the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died on a cross to pay for my sins and to appease the wrath of God. Because of what He has done, His Father shows mercy to me.

Not by works of righteousness which I have done, but according to His mercy He saved me, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on me abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace I should become an heir according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:5–7, personalized)

Being merciful and offering love to others is the least that I can do.