God had no mercy upon the angels that fell. Many of His chosen were destroyed in the holocaust. Not everyone we share Christ with accepts Him. Why is God gracious to me? I did nothing nor have anything in myself that deserves it, only that the Bible says “He has mercy on whom he will have mercy.” Otherwise we would die in our sin.
He saved and changed me so I would bless Him. Some say that word can mean “be well spoken of” so to bless God is about praise. I cannot add anything to His majesty but I can speak well of Him and totally trust Him, believing all that He says. I can also make the wonder of who He is known to others. Yet this does not answer the question “why me?”
Scripture gives no reason. The OT says this of His choice for Israel:
Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power. (Psalm 106:8)The Nt tells of His blessings in Ephesians 1:3–14, but is silent about the ‘why’ of His choices only this:
It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations. . . . (Deuteronomy 7:7–10)
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:26–29)God only says His reasoning is not about my merit, but about His will — and He does not explain that!
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.PRAY: I cannot answer my question, but I can say with the psalmist, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes. . . .” (Psalm 8:1–9) I can praise You, knowing that Your way is gracious and Your choices fit the wonder of who You are — much more than mere mortals can fully understand. For that, I can repeat, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory — even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (Romans 9:14–24)
