Mercy!

Mercy!

It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, Because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: Great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22‭-‬23 KJV

Context and Charge:

One of the elements of God's nature and identity, out of many, is His mercy. We speak of it daily and regularly, but it is important not to miss its impact and essence. One of the best definitions of mercy I have come across is: 'compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm'. A lot of things stand out from this definition. First, it is always the greater who is in the position to show mercy to the lesser. Secondly, the lesser is the one who needs to be forgiven by the greater  because of sin or wrongdoing. Thirdly, the person to be forgiven has no doubt that s/he had done wrong and should be rightly punished. The due punishment wasn't because the greater was superior, but because set rules had been broken. This is why mercy is so important and quite critical to my present stand and my future reality.

I think of my life's journey up to this point and I know, without a doubt, that I am alive today simply by the exercise and dispensation of the mercy of God. By the sin of Adam, I had inherited the sinful nature, and by God's nature, death is the right price for sin. If He were to dispense death for sin, God would not be wrong, but mercy had to speak, otherwise, we all would be dead. I could not afford to pay the price of sin on my own, so God sent his own son to do so. That is another outflow of that mercy. I now have a new standing in God, with sin fully forgiven and new life sealed. God does not hold that past against me in any way, and He will continue to dispense mercy as long as I am dependent on Him. His nature forbids that He makes a promise that He has no ability or capacity to bring to pass. That is why He is consistently called a faithful God.

Conviction and Conclusion:

This mercy is a daily supply, not weekly, monthly or annual. The verse says that it is mercy that wakes me up each morning that I open my eyes, and it is that mercy that will  sustain me all day. God is so wonderful that he has enough mercies for all of us on earth, and then the next day, he still supplies new mercies. He does not need to repeat anything if He doesn't want to; unique fingerprints for over 7 billion people on earth show that God is amazing and awesome. His heart of love for man is awesome; He showers us with abundant mercies, and no other part of His creation can claim such attention. If this is how God deals with me, how would I then deal with God in deceit, hypocrisy or eye-service? I must not take God's mercy for granted; the life of his Son paved the way for me to enjoy all that God is and has. God's time of favour is here.