What’s special about mercy?
Better asked, what is mercy?
Here’s what Merriam-Webster tells us:
Compassion or leniency, especially towards an offender subject to your power …
So, if someone is under your control, and they’ve wronged you, and it’s within your right to punish them, and you choose not to, well, there you have it. That’s mercy at its core, the compassion or leniency that says, “I know what you did, and I choose not to hold you accountable.”
Wow! That’s impactful, a level of forgiveness many of us struggle to find.
Luke 18:13-14 gives us a Biblical example of mercy in a story familiar to all of us.
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
To men, the tax collector had all the power. But to God, he had no power at all, and the tax collector knew this.
Here’s the key takeaway from this passage. The man had to call upon God to receive the mercy God wished to offer him.
Salvation is free to all who call upon God. He doesn’t force it on us. We must request it. We acknowledge our need of God’s mercy, and in doing so, salvation becomes ours, freely offered and fully given.
Call upon God today. Salvation can be yours.
Copyright © 2021 MyChurchNotes.net
Code: FGO.G.13.21a.vp.esv