Are you merciful? Do you show mercy to others? Do you know what mercy means? Have you looked to see what God means by mercy?
Mercy seems to be a rare commodity today. We just don’t see much of it going on. We especially don’t see it in our daily news. We see anything but mercy. Although, occasionally, we see a small bit of mercy.
If we are going to show mercy to others and look for mercy in our world, we need to know what mercy is. We particularly need to know what God means when He tells us to show mercy. In our passage today, we see Jesus say we are to be merciful just as God is merciful.
If we were to just look at this passage alone, we would apply our human definition to mercy. However, if we look at the previous few verses, we find how Jesus describes mercy. His description is a little different than we might expect.
Jesus includes loving those who don’t love us and loving our enemies. He includes doing good for our enemies. He includes lending to our enemies without expecting being paid back. His definition is certainly not what we normally think of when we think of mercy.
How can we be merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful? We certainly can’t do it on our own. We need the help of God to be able to show mercy as He does. We need His Spirit working in our lives to even think about showing mercy like that.
Perhaps you don’t think God shows mercy that way. If not, I want you to think about what God does for you. I want you to think about being an enemy of God’s. That may sound odd, but we are enemies of God’s in one respect. We don’t obey Him. We don’t listen to Him. We don’t live our lives in accordance with His will. What would we call that? At a minimum, it’s being a disobedient child.
Yet, God continues to bless us. He continues to love us. He continues to give to us knowing we can never repay Him. He continues provide us with a way to be saved and spend eternity with Him. If we are going to be merciful as He is, we must ask Him to work in our lives so we can treat others as He treats us.
I pray each of us will decide to ask God into our lives and fill us with His Spirit. I pray we desire to be merciful as God is. I pray we all stop, think, and realize our opposition to God’s ways and ask Him to change our lives. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you. Realize you act as an enemy of God. Seek to change your ways. Learn to be merciful as God is merciful. You can trust God.
Luke 6:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Marty Pressey 