Verse of the day: Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, For
they shall obtain mercy.
Mark recorded for us in Acts
20:35 the words of the Apostle Paul in quoting Jesus, “It is more blessed to
give than to receive”. Happiness, as defined by Jesus, is giving of ourselves
to others. To be merciful is to care about the wellbeing of others. It is to
give to the poor. It is to come alongside those that are suffering and giving
of our time and resources for the sake of meeting their need. To be merciful is
to give forgiveness for wrongs done, even if we feel that the other person does
not deserve it; especially because the wrong was directed at us. We are told to
forgive as we have been forgiven, by God, for Christ’s sake (Eph 4:32). James
2:15-16 tells us that if we know that a brother or sister is naked and
destitute of food, and we do nothing to meet that need, of what profit is it? 1
John 3:17 tells us that if we shut up
our bowels of compassion for a brother or sister in need, how does the love of
God dwell in us? Mercy comes from two perspectives. The first is mercy that
comes from the fact that God has been merciful to us. We owed God a great debt
that we could not repay; yet, Jesus came and paid that price for us. God was
therefore merciful toward us in that He does not condemn us, even though we
deserve it; instead He has provided eternal life for us in Jesus. Jesus
illustrated this in Matthew 18:23-35 where He tells the story of the servant
who was forgiven a great debt that he could not repay, by a certain king, but
then refused to forgive a smaller debt owed to him by another. The king became
angry with him and threw him into prison until he could repay his debt. When we
stand before God we will be made aware of how often we were merciful to others,
and Jesus counted the good done as being done to him. In Matthew 25:34-40 Jesus
explained that when we give to the hungry, we give to Him, when we give the
thirsty something to drink, we do so to Christ, when we clothe the naked, we do
this unto Jesus, when we visit the sick, we visit Him. The bottom line is that mercy
is twofold. We give mercy because we have been given mercy, and we give mercy
because we know that there will come a time when we will need mercy as well. Jesus
said in Matthew 6:15, “But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses.” As born again Christians we should
be known as some of the most compassionate and merciful people on earth. The
greatest compassion we can show toward a lost and dying world is to share the
Gospel and love of Christ with them. A great motivator in our lives for sharing
the Gospel with others should be the fact that those who die without Christ are
doomed to eternal condemnation; for this reason we must do all that we can to
speak and live out the Gospel so that others will have the opportunity to
choose eternal life in Christ. As we do this, let us also be ready to show
mercy to those who are in need; whether that need is spiritual, physical or
emotional. We must be merciful in the giving of our time, talents, and
resources, all for the glory of God, and for the simple reason that God is
merciful to those who show mercy toward others, just as He has been merciful
toward us.
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