No Mercy!

I am learning how much mercy that I don’t have. As I read how God was giving Aaron more duties as the head priest even after Aaron had made a golden calf for the Israelites to worship when they demanded to have another god, I winced knowing that I would have shown him no mercy. I realized how little mercy I have for those who I believe have caused me distress. I don’t want to see them or speak to them, much less have mercy on them.  I felt God exposed my heart when right after my Bible reading, I read this in the InTouch devotions:

God loves us and shows mercy toward us even when we are unfaithful and disobedient, and even when we break His heart. We are likewise to demonstrate mercy even when people fall short of our expectations or hurt us…. We should show mercy without having to be convinced, prodded, or talked into it. Rather, doing so should be our default setting. When we are working in the power of the Holy Spirit, mercy pours from us as effortlessly as water from a tap.

I can tell your right now that mercy is not my default setting. Now I really have to look at my heart to see if am working in the power of the Holy Spirit as I don’t feel that I have the ability to be so merciful. It is difficult. Am I the only one who feels this way?  Can you be so merciful?  I wonder if I can be like God and choose to have mercy on whomever I like?  

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.  For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. Romans 9:14-18

I really want to be like God and have mercy on whom I would like to have mercy. I believe some people may not be deserving of my mercy because of the level of hurt they may have caused. But then, I too am not deserving of God’s mercy because of all the hurt I have caused Him. Genesis 6:6 tells us that God was sorry that He made man, and it broke His heart, just in case we think that God is not grieved as a result of our actions. I know I have definitely caused God some grief, but yet still He has shown me His abundant mercy over and over again. And just as He has had so much mercy on me, I must have mercy on others who may have caused me distress. I should not try to render my own judgement when I have no authority to do so. The Lord is the Great Judge. He will administer justice and punishment. And He, knowing the heart, may give mercy instead.  My decision should always be to choose to have mercy on those who may cause me pain and love them as Jesus would have me do.

“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. Luke 6:27-28

This is not easy. But Jesus left the Holy Spirit to help us do the righteous things we can’t do in our own strength.  We can only do this through God’s Spirit as loving our enemy and doing good to those who hate us don’t come naturally. This is rooted in a supernatural God. And we will face the consequences of not being merciful. Although God is great in love and rich in mercy, He will not have mercy in His judgement to those who don’t show mercy and we should always remember that mercy triumphs over judgement. (See James 2:13). And God will bless the merciful.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Matthew 5:7