Mercy-Part Five
Application: Giving Mercy to
Ourselves
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Like any other Bible principle, it takes more than learning about the principle. God calls out to apply the principle in our personal lives. My God wants me to more than know all about mercy, He wants me to give mercy to myself and others.
Origin of God’s
Mercy
The mercy that flows from God is based upon His character. It is a part of
His being. It’s source is Him. Mercy is something that
flows from Him automatically.
Origin of Man’s
Mercy
Any mercy we have is because it has come from our Heavenly Father-whether
we acknowledge Him as the source or not. For many of us, the amount of mercy we
give is directly dependent upon the mercy we have received from God and others.
Individuals who have a hard time to give mercy to others, most likely have not
experienced God’s mercy in their own life.
At some point in our Christian walk, mercy should become part of our character. We are to have the mind of Christ, which includes seeing individuals in the light of mercy. It should become natural to share mercy to a person needing mercy.
Giving Mercy to Ourselves
Before we can give mercy to others, we need to be able to give mercy to
ourselves. Many Christians have grown up in rigid, legalistic homes and
churches. They have lived in an atmosphere of rules, regulations, and
performance orientation. There was no room for mistakes. God was only a harsh
Judge, not a Loving, Merciful Father. No matter how hard they try to be a ‘good
Christian’, they are never good enough. What they fail to realize is that we
are never ‘good enough’. Only Jesus is good enough. So our value, self-worth,
significance, needs to be based upon on how God sees us. And He sees us in the
light of His mercy.
Those who are rigid, legalistic, judgmental, harsh, unloving, and bound up in rules do not realize that it is because of God’s mercy that He does not destroy them because of their false witness of His character. The very mercy that they refuse to give to others is the very mercy that keeps them alive. They need to come to a realization of His mercy so that they can receive it for themselves and give it to others.
Yes, Almighty God is the Judge, He is holy, He calls us to walk in uprightness, He does discipline, and He even punishes the wicked. But all of this is in the covering of love, mercy, and grace.
Just as the Lord has mercy on legalistic Christians, we must to do the same. I don’t know about you, but this is very hard for me. In fact it seems impossible to do. But then He reminds of His mercy towards me. Their sin is no different than my sin, both lead to death without his mercy and grace.
In our next nugget we
will discuss “Giving Mercy To Others”.
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Copyright © 2002 Richard D. Dover. All rights reserv
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http://www.inhisstepsministries.org
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations used are from the New American Standard Version (NASB).