It’s Friday…It’s Simply Amazing

I have been fixated on the attribute of mercy these past few days. Understanding God’s love and mercy is the foundation of our relationship with Him. If we don’t have that down, we aren’t going to get the rest of our relationship with The Lord right. Even so, this love and mercy are often things we distort easily. We simply can’t believe God would love us so much, because we know we are not worthy of such love. And yet that’s what mercy is all about – undeserved love. It is the most critical truth of living for Jesus, and it’s the hardest truth to sink in.

“God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

Why do we have such a hard time basing our lives on absolute mercy? Because it is foreign to us; we don’t operate that way. We don’t forgive people easily while they are still in a state of hostility toward us. We don’t make the first move to extend grace; we wait for an apology or a sign of regret. We don’t love our enemies and go out of our way to embrace strangers. We don’t cut people much slack.

But we serve a God who has done all of that. Not only did He cut us a lot of slack, but He also made us sons and daughters, heirs of His eternal wealth. We struggle to accept such lavish love because we’ve never seen it before. It’s Simply Amazing.

If we do let His mercy sink in, however – if we can let it be the unshakable foundation of our lives – it has incredible power to transform us. It makes us secure enough to extend love to offensive people, it keeps us from the tragic tendency to act out of guilt, and it connects us with the heart of the God who is really there, not the God we think we imagine.

Let’s try to not build our relationship with The LORD on anything else but this truth. Every motivation, every impulse, every attitude ought to spring from an awareness that we are irrevocably loved and forgiven by a magnanimous, merciful God. Such foundation is the only one that can calm our fears, relieve our worries, and allow us to live in perfect joy and peace. Agree?

Have a noble weekend. Make it better by worshiping The LORD with those who live to be merciful in word and in deed because He has been nothing but that to them.

All For Jesus – Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else.

“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, The King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15b-16)