The Road to Mercy

I received this message via email from Walk in the Word with James MacDonald - and today I am very much aware that I need God's mercy.

Here is what James MacDonald had to say about God's mercy:

"Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old." - Psalm 25:6

There is always tension, difficulty, and suffering on the growing edge of our relationship with God. That's where the change is going on, where we are learning to trust God. Those difficulties start a series of steps on the road to mercy:

The bigger the trial gets, the more I know I need God.
The more I need God, the closer I am drawn to Him.
The closer I get to Him, the more I sense His holiness.
The more I sense His holiness, the more I realize my own sinfulness.

So the closer I get to God, I think, "Whoa! I really haven't been on the program. There are things in my life that are not pleasing to God." Could you think of some things in your life that are not pleasing to God? You're not better than anyone else. If by God's grace you have progressed through the years to a deeper level of holiness - even that's not because of you - it's only because of God's grace in your life. So the closer you and I get to God, the more we have a sense of our own sinfulness.

No wonder David says, "Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love." Actually in the Hebrew, the words for "mercy" and "love" are both plural. The verse means, "Remember Your merciful acts, God. Remember Your acts of chesed, of steadfast loving-kindness." David is not referring to the word "remember" as in, Did You forget? He's saying, "Remember the stuff that You always do, God. Do Your stuff! Do it for us! God, You were merciful and loving to Abraham and Moses. You were merciful and loving to Your people. This is who You are, God! Do it in our generation. Be to me as You have always been. Advance Your reputation, God. Be here today as You have been through thousands of years. Be merciful to me, God. Be loving." He goes on: "for they have been from of old." "Lord, You've always been like this. Be it again!"

If you know God's holiness, you also know how badly you need His mercy.

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Like most people, I tend to dislike trials and difficulties. I need to learn to ask God for strength to go through the trial - and not ask Him to take the trial away from me. However, I have recently found myself wanting to be close and intimate with God. I want the kind of closeness that only certain trials and difficulties can create. I want to depend on Him and I want to be molded by Him. But to go through the hard times I desperately need His mercy.