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 NKJV)
I've been thinking lately about God's mercy in my life and in many of your lives. It is something we don't deserve it but yet God has given it to us any way.
The Mercy Of God Involves Seven Things:
1- Mercy Involves God's PERSON
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. (Psalm 103:8 ESV)
We know that the Lord does show mercy and that the Lord has acts of mercy - but the Bible says that the Lord is mercy. It involves His person, who He is.
When you come to the Lord, you are not coming to somebody who is sitting with a baseball bat ready to club you for every false move. The Bible teaches that His essential nature and character is mercy. Mercy holds back from us what we really deserve. While grace gives us what we do not deserve. How wonderful it is to know that it involves His person. That is what His character is like. There is never a moment when you come to the Lord that He stops being merciful.
2- Mercy Involves God's PROVISION
It is mercy that makes all His benefits possible.
Psalm 103:2 says, "Bless the Lord and forget not all His benefits."
Look at the following verses and see the list of benefits that come from our merciful God...
Psalm 103:3 "Who forgives, who heals."
Psalm 103:4 "Who redeems, who crowns."
Psalm 103:5 "Who satisfies."
It is just one verb after another telling you about the benefits of our Lord. It is God who is merciful, who provides healing, forgiveness, redemption, crowns us, and satisfies us. God does it all because He is a merciful God.
3- Mercy Involves The PATIENCE Of God
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. (Psalm 103:8, 9 ESV)
"Slow to anger" is the patience of God.
Oftentimes... in the New Testament, when you read "patient," sometimes it is translated "longsuffering," depending upon the English translation. It means taking a long time to boil. Slow to anger. Aren't you glad God does not fly off the handle?
4 - Mercy Involves God's PUNISHMENT
When God does punish us for our sins, you must understand that it is done in mercy. If God would punish you according to what you really deserve, you would be in big trouble!
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:10 ESV)
5- Mercy Involves God's PARDON
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:11, 12 ESV)
Praise God - Our sins are erased and washed away!
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8, 9 ESV)
6- Mercy Involves God's PITY
Or... should we say compassion.
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:13, 14 ESV)
God knows that we are but human and has a pity over us. He is compassionate to your needs and addictions - to your hurts and habits.
7- Mercy Involves God's PLAN
As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. (Psalm 103:15-19 ESV)
What a reminder of the plan of God. That man is like a flower of the field. He is passing away. His place is remembered no more. What significance is he in the overall plan of God? The answer comes through loud and clear. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.
His plan for you is eternal.
Psalm 105 says, "The Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting."
Psalm 138:8 says, "Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever."
It is a faithful plan. It is also a sovereign plan. The plan of God, which is saturated with His mercy, is eternal, faithful and sovereign in all that it does and it is all backed up and strengthened by His wonderful mercy and compassion.
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