Being merciful

 

One good thing about aging is realizing that I cannot do many things that once were easy for me. Why is this good? I causes me to depend more and more on God’s help. Last week, a friend complained about age-related weakness and I said, “Think of it this way. Instead of being a weakness, you are becoming more mature in faith. It is the weak and helpless that God blesses the most.”

This popped out without forethought and came to mind this morning when I read this verse and the note I’d written under it: “Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful.” (Psalm 116:5) The note said, ‘Mercy is doing for others what they cannot do for themselves.’

Today’s devotional says showing mercy is a sign of being a Christian. This verse tells me that I’m to be like God in that I do for others what they cannot do for themselves:

So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:12–13)

These ideas are all connected. Aging gives me a sense of what others experience. I’m far more aware of the trials of life and the pitfalls, the sad times and the struggles. Age gives understanding into the human dilemma and into the battles we fight against sin. I’ve been through times of winning and times of losing. I know what it is like to be unable, to have much that I cannot do for myself. Showing mercy is more meaningful because I’ve needed it myself and God has shown it to me.

God’s “law of liberty” is the Gospel. It has set me free from the law of sin and death, something I could never do for myself either.

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:2–4)

God’s mercy to me is the reason and the foundation for me showing mercy to others. Even if other people do not realize that they cannot save themselves, I know the power and deceitfulness of sin. I didn’t understand it for many years, but now that I am older and God has shown me how helpless I am to fight sin, I have a greater distaste for it. I know what sin can do to a life and I don’t want others to remain it its clutches. Because of that knowledge and experience, showing mercy is an imperative. Sometimes it is the key to unlocking the door to release others from the prison of sin.

PRAY: Lord Jesus, there are people all around me in need of mercy. I realize that some of them are unaware of their need. Sin blinds the mind to the reality of it and to our helplessness to fight it. I also now see my own helplessness with greater appreciation for it. Without Your Spirit and Your wisdom, I’ve no idea what needs to be done to set people free from that law of sin and death. I just know that mercy is part of it, a large part. Otherwise, sinners face judgment without mercy. Today, grant me grace to be merciful. I’ve no idea what the day may bring, but without Your mercy and grace, I will be helpless to deal with any of it. Bless me so I can bless others.

PONDER: Read Luke 10:25-37. What does it tell me about mercy? What can interfere with being merciful?

 

 

Blessed are the merciful . . .

 

God delights in mercy and gives me the privilege of showing mercy to others. In the physical realm I can give money to the poor, food to the hungry, or a bed to the homeless:

If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. (Deuteronomy 15:7–8)

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? (1 John 3:17)

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:15–17)

From these three passages, mercy is an act of obedience, a demonstration of God’s love, and visible proof that I trust God and am willing to give whatever I can because He will take care of my needs.

The Bible tells other ways to show mercy. One of them is by forgiveness. “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:14). Too often our forgiveness is conditional. That is, ‘I will forgive her when she says she is sorry’ as if lack of forgiveness will punish the offender. This doesn’t hurt others as much as it hurts me . . .

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:3–7)

When someone sins against me and I get riled up, God reminds me that I’m just as guilty or more; I have no reason or right to put others down. He uses Gospel truth to put lack of forgiveness in perspective. I cannot claim that I am forgiven because of my goodness — salvation is by grace and mercy so who am I to withhold forgiveness from others!

We have a great high priest . . . Jesus, the Son of God . . . . For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:14–16)

My only claim to the blessings of God is in what Christ has done. The above passage reminds me of that, but also that He sympathizes with my weaknesses because He knows what it is like to be tempted. I need to remember that truth when others fall into sin. Instead of condemning them, I know what it is like to be in their shoes. They need mercy, just as I need mercy. Because of God’s grace to me, I can show grace and mercy to others, no matter what they have done or are doing.

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:10–13)

We tend to categorize sin in a rating system, but God does not do that. Mercy realizes that my ‘little’ sins make me just as guilty of sin as the ‘big’ sins of someone else. Mercy thinks, ‘We are in this battle together’ not that I am better because my sins seem less serious to me.

Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:10)

Jesus, your mercy put me into God’s kingdom. Otherwise, I’d not be here nor have any mercy for others. Mercy is not pity but a compassion that wants people to be God’s people. Enable me to see the needs and human hearts the way You see them, and to be merciful to them.

MORE: List the ways God has shown mercy to me. Think of others who are in those situations and how I can show His mercy to them.