Mercy!

Mercy!

Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous–with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy! Matthew 5:7 AMPC

In all of the 'Blessed' statements from the Sermon on the Mount, one thing is clear: the focus of Jesus is first on the inner man, because it is the foundation to the life force and expression of the outer man. The world places so much stock on impressions and image; God wants to do his work on the canvas of our hearts because He knows that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. 

Today's focus is on those who show mercy. One definition of mercy is: compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. What this defintion makes quite clear is that mercy is not something you accidentally show; it is the product of the exercise of your freewill. It also means that it is only a person who has experienced it that understands its value and is able to show it to others. 

If I struggle to forgive others, or I am quick to pay other people back in their own coin, does this not show that I do not fully understand what I also have been forgiven? If I am driven by a desire to be right at all times, would this not be a reflection of a lack of understanding of who God is and what He has freely given me? And what makes this even more poignant is the fact that by God's own divine arrangement, whatever I give out is what comes back to me. That's the law of divine seasons, and as it has been since the days of Noah, so have they been till today.

Whatever I want to see in my life must first flow out of me. The right stuff will not flow out if I do not have the right person living inside of me. The right person will not dwell in a vessel that is full of the wrong contents. I have a major role to play: open my heart to God and let Him live in and through me. The world will see the difference and respond to the outflow of God in me. What am I showing to the world? His time of favour is here.