Mercy Requires Mercy

As a Christian woman, there isn’t much wiggle room when it comes to giving mercy. Yeah, I’ve tried to find those loopholes in real life and it’s not working for me. Apparently, God meant what He said, when the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write in 6:36 – Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.

Since we are having an honest conversation here…I’ll go first…sometimes I don’t always feel like dishing out mercy. Nope. I’d rather dish up a hot plate of “who wronged me” with a side of “my rights”…how about you? Thought so. It’s in these times, that we need to take a breath, and remember the mercy God has showed us. We read in scripture time and time again, how Jesus met with sinners (like you and me) and extended a scandalous mercy, compassion and grace upon them. It’s scandalous because it wasn’t merited. Nope, not even a little. None of it. And yet there Jesus was passing out mercy and compassion.

To be honest, God has met me in some pretty dark spaces and extended his hand of mercy with such beautiful covering. I deserved full disclosure of my sin and He dealt with me privately and covered it. That’s mercy. That’s how I need to be dealing with others in my life.

When I set my gaze on the Mercy Giver instead of my rights, it’s easy to heap buckets, and buckets of mercy on those who have sinned against me, offended me or just plain cut me off in traffic. One tip that I’ll leave you with that has made a HUGE difference in this area for me. I’m determined to always think the best about people. I have found when I do that…it helps keep the small stuff, the small stuff. Try it, it may help you too!

Watch this video about Mercy

ShareJesus Lent Video 33: Three Tips for Being Merciful

Video Credit: Redeemed Online YouTube Channel