Mercy

Mercy

Real love includes both mercy and justice. By inflicting his Son on the cross for our sin, God was then able to extend mercy toward us. Jesus received on the cross what we deserved so that God could extend mercy to us. Out of this mercy flows his grace, from which we receive his many blessings and benefits. Consider the statement from James 2:13, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” Judgment condemns and restricts life, but mercy grants freedom and allows one to experience a fuller life. The words we speak may be words of life or of death to the one who hears them. Mercy is like those words of life.

My Prayer

Father, thank you for your infinite love for me, that you were willing to sacrifice your only Son for me. Lord Jesus, thank you for your willingness to leave behind the glory you had with the Father in heaven and go to the cross and become sin in my place, allowing mercy to be shown to me. Father, thank you for raising Jesus Christ from the dead, and then by your great mercy giving me a new birth through his resurrection. Where I was once dead in my sin, you have now made me alive with Christ. It was because of your great kindness and love that I was saved, not because of righteous things I had done, but because of your mercy. Lord, I pray that by your strength I will act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with you. That I will be able to show mercy to others as you have to me. Father, I pray that I will be a child of yours who is filled with wisdom that comes from heaven, a wisdom that is pure, peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Lord, thank you for eternal life that you have given to me; a life that is so rich and yet it is completely free.

Related Verses

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4 – 5 ESV).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3 ESV).

“But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4 – 5 NET).

“Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with fullest confidence, that we may receive mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need” (Hebrews 4:16 Phillips).

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 ESV)?

“And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you” (Matthew 18:33 ESV)?

“And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation” (Luke 1:50 ESV).

“The wisdom that comes from God is first utterly pure, then peace-loving, gentle, approachable, full of tolerant thoughts and kindly actions, with no breath of favoritism or hint of hypocrisy” (James 3:17 Phillips).

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36 NET).