Because of the mercies of the LORD we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning! Great is Your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.” Lamentations 3:22-24.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5.
Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. 2 John 1:3.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Great is My faithfulness. And that is why I have given you Jesus to fulfill all My promises to you in Him. He is My gift to the world. It is by grace you are saved through faith, but it is only because of My mercy that grace is available to you. The first of My attributes in the order of their importance to you is mercy. My mercy gives you Jesus and when you receive the gift of Jesus, My grace comes to you through and in Him. Grace upon grace, but it all flows out of My great mercy.
My servant Paul, who considered himself one of the greatest recipients of My mercy, greeted the Corinthian church with the words, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” 2 Corinthians 1:3. I would that you all knew Me this way, from the least to the greatest.
And as we continue our study of how to live your life IN CHRIST, today’s life lesson is “A life of Tender Mercies.” Each morning My mercies are new.
When the sick or the destitute cried out to My Son they asked for mercy, and rightly so, grace gives you My life and is legally obtained by the removal of all your sins by the death and resurrection of My Son, but healing, provision, deliverance, and salvation all flow from My mercy. Equal to My majesty and justice is the mercy that I show.
I am rich in mercy, which is the result of My great love with which I love you. I have compassion on you because I know how you are formed and I know the depths you have fallen to in Adam, which weakened your flesh by the devastating effects of sin. But even when you were dead in trespasses, I made you alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised you up together, and made you sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come I might show the exceeding riches of My grace in kindness toward you in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it Is My gift to you out of My great mercy, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For you are My workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus for good works, which I prepared beforehand that you should walk in them. Ephesians 2:4-10.
When Moses asked to see My glory I came in a cloud and passed before Him proclaiming My Name, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful (compassionate) and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7. “The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.” Ezekiel 18:20. But now in Christ, whoever repents and takes Him as Lord is cleansed of all sin and is made righteous with My own righteousness. He took your sins and bore your punishment so you no longer need bear it. I have made a new covenant, this time with My Son as the representative of all mankind, and under this covenant, once you enter it through and in Christ, your sins and offenses I remember NO MORE. By the blood of His Cross you are made holy, blameless and beyond reproach before Me and we are made one in Him. Reconciled forever. And that is mercy.
Get to know Me and learn to come with confidence to My throne and receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I am merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. I will not always strive with you, nor will I keep My anger forever. I have not dealt with you according to your sins, nor punished you according to your iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is My lovingkindness toward those who value and honor Me. As far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your transgressions from you by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Just as a father has merciful compassion on his children, so I have merciful compassion on those who have hearts towards Me. I pay off all your debts to Me in Christ. For I Myself know your frame; I am mindful that your body will return to the dust. Psalm 103:8-14. But your spirit and soul are forever as I AM. From eternity to eternity I AM, and I am merciful. My lovingkindness is from everlasting to everlasting on those who revere Me and believe in My gift of Jesus. You have no reason not to come to Me for all you need. It all flows to you from the fountain of My mercy.
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; since you are precious in My sight,
you are honored and I love you. Isaiah 43:1-4. Even when you were dead in your sins and trespasses these were My thoughts towards you. It is because of My mercy that you are not consumed for your sins. But I know the thoughts I have towards you, and they are for your shalom (wholeness and prosperity in every area of your life) and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. And that is from My mercy, not because of what you are doing for Me, but because of who I am to you and who you are to Me. I loathe nothing that I have made. Even when you rebel and turn your back to Me, I seek you, for you are still My handiwork and I long to create you anew in Christ Jesus that I may dwell with you and you with Me forever, as was My plan for you when I first made mankind.
For this time of grace in Christ Jesus is like the days of Noah to Me, when I swore that the waters of Noah would not flood the earth again; so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you
nor will I rebuke you when you are in Christ. For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken. And thus I say, I, the LORD who has mercy and compassion on you. Isaiah 54:9-10.
So how does this affect your life lived in Christ each day? It makes a tremendous difference in your expectations of our relationship. It is a very different relationship that you have with Me in Christ than you do if you have rejected Him as Lord. You who have Him are living as one with Me, and grace, mercy and peace are flowing to you and, if you receive them by walking in newness of life, grace, mercy, and peace are also flowing through you to others and filling the atmosphere around you each day. Be merciful as I, your heavenly Father, am merciful. Luke 6:36. And I mean to yourself as well as to others. And the more mercy you give, the more you receive, for I have an unlimited supply of mercies, they never fail and are new every morning no matter what happened the day before.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Matthew 5:7.
When you begin to know My mercy you begin to know My heart. And then we can talk heart to heart. David was a man after My own heart and he sang, “Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.” Psalm 62:8. You can lean on Me. You can find a safe refuge in Me, a safe harbor from the storms of life. Psalm 91. You can trust Me never to leave you or forsake you no matter what you are going through. Hope all from My mercy and receive all by My grace and you will have peace in your innermost being. When you cry out to Me in your trouble, when you call upon My gracious mercy with confidence and love, I cause the storm to still and guide you to your desired haven. Psalm 107:28-30.
And what does it mean for you to be merciful because I have been merciful to you? It means you forgive others as I forgave you. How did I forgive you? By the blood of Jesus. And He paid the ransom for ALL, once for ALL for ALL time. 1 Timothy 2:6; Hebrews 10:14. But you must receive Him to have this redemption apply to your life but it is available to all. So Jesus has paid you for the sins that others have committed against you by His blood and that should be enough for you to forgive. It is enough for Me to forgive you. And the standard by which you judge I must use back to you. So if the blood is not enough for you to forgive others, it is not enough for Me, by your own standard of judgment, to forgive you. And the same applies if you cannot forgive yourself. You are wise to use My standard that the blood is more than enough and forgive yourself and others. Do not let the sun go down on its anger, do not be stingy with mercy. Let yours also be new every morning in reaching out your arms to help others.
Being merciful is showing compassion for others burdens and pains, do not be irritated with them and decide you are too busy to show compassion to others. Do not just look after your own interests but see others’ interests as important too. Care for one another and help one another bear your burdens. Be encouragers and be generous in your giving. Remember as you give mercy, you receive mercy multiplied back to you. When you water others, you yourself will be watered. Be generous as I am and then you will find a harvest of generosity you come back to you. It is the matter of giving and receiving. And giving is always an act of mercy for it is taking from yours and giving to others as a good steward of My manifold grace. Time is well spent in serving others and ministering My grace to them to lead them to salvation. I will order your day aright and redeem the time back to you.
Receive mercy, give mercy, and keep overflowing with My mercy, it is a living stream from My heart to yours. And it is a stream of healing, provision, blessing, and beauty. Mercy is beautiful. It has no place in a hard and unrepentant heart of pride.
“Behold, days are coming, says the LORD, when I make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they broke My covenant, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people and they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all will know Me, from the least to the greatest, from the youngest to the oldest, of them. For I will be MERCIFUL to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:8-12. And how did I make that covenant? With Jesus and He sealed it in His blood by taking on all your sins and taking the punishment due them that so that you in Him would be part of that covenant of mercy and never break it again, for you, by My mercy, are hidden in Him and He will never break it as He keeps all My commands.
I love you. And that is what mercy is all about, the great love with which I have loved you found a way by mercy to clear you of all your sins and give you My grace in Jesus. Receive My mercy by receiving Jesus. He is My gift of mercy.