“I’m someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy.” 1 Timothy 1:16 The Message.
Mercy is needed most and given best when deserved the least.
As a child, I remember my grandmother, Irene, a most Godly and loving woman, often muttering more to herself than anyone around, “Mercy me!” When she didn’t quite understand something that had happened or felt like she had not done as well as she should, the words she chose were, “mercy me!”- a simple and sincere expression of both her need and expectation of mercy from God and others.
When I look at the grace of God and the graciousness of others toward me these many years, I am grateful for mercy – mercy when I failed to be all that I should have been, and when I fell short of my best intentions to be what I could. I readily identify with Paul’s testimony, “I’m someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off – evidence of his endless patience to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever.” 1 Timothy 1:16 The Message. Everyone needs mercy because everyone fails. Our common imperfections mean that mercy is important to anyone’s future. Mercy cannot be demanded, nor can it be earned.
Mercy is not owed to you; mercy is needed most and given best when deserved the least. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” Titus 3:5 NKJV.
But there is something that you should know about mercy; it only comes to the merciful. When Jesus stated the “constitution and by-laws” of the Kingdom of God, He was plain spoken, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”Matthew 5:7.James, the brother of Jesus, elaborated further, “For there will be no mercy for you if you have not been merciful to others. But if you have been merciful, then God’s mercy toward you will win out over his judgment against you.” James 2:13 NLT. Now that is really good news!
It will always be easier to overlook others’ mistakes, if you remember well your own. For your own good, you can never be too merciful. It seems to me that God replenishes mercy to you only as you generously offer mercy to others. The grand story of the Bible is the mercy of God – to Adam and Eve in a Garden, to Abraham in a desert, to Samson in a Philistine prison, to David in a palace, to Simon Peter on a seashore, to Paul on a roadside, and to anyone – wherever they are and whatever they have done – who calls on His name in honest and humble repentance.
David experienced the greatest of mercy and marveled at the grace of that. In 150 Psalms, mercy is used at least 110 times. David was confident of God’s unfailing mercy toward him. One of the most precious promises of Scripture may well be, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Psalm 23:6. I describe goodness as, “God giving me what I could not deserve,” and mercy as, “God not giving me what I do deserve!”
And Jesus has shown God’s mercy to you and me! “Let us have confidence, then, and approach God’s throne, where there is grace. [At God’s throne], we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.” Hebrews 4:16 TEV. I think my grandmother had it right all the time, “Mercy me!” I too could never make it, apart from sheer mercy.
My prayer for you this day is that you trust the mercy of God yet never be presumptuous about it.