Just an Intro

 

I am an addict—so are many people I know. Without this substance in my life, I am nothing. I have no hope, my days are meaningless, the weight of the world crushes down on me, and my peace dissipates. If I can just tap into this substance my whole world rights itself and I can function as I must. Is it a crutch? Yes, for a broken life that needs one. It seems foolish to me to insist on walking without a crutch when your leg is broken. I will not pretend that I am strong enough to be good all the time nor am I smart enough to control my world. I need help and that is why I find myself addicted to mercy, God’s mercy.

God supplies me with His mercy because I cannot save myself. I love Him so much for this incredible opportunity to live complete in Him. When I’ve tried to live without His flow of mercy, I quickly come to the end of myself and see just how incomplete and tiresome I can be. When I change the position of my life so that it is centered in the flow of His mercy, my whole being comes alive and gains freshness and eternal reality. I am convinced that when I live in His mercy, allow its work in my life and operate in its principles, I will have the perfect complete life. Perfect because of whom He is and what he does.

Most of us find the overwhelming mercy of God when we see Calvary. Salvation without question is so undeserved yet He has not only pardoned us but paid for that pardon. Every day, thanks should spill from our souls for this mercy God has shown us. This mercy is experienced over and over throughout the world on a moment by moment tick of the clock over centuries of generations.

Eph 2

⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

⁵ Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

⁶ And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

⁷ That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.

No one man is more deserving of salvation than the next. No one has a corner on God’s mercy that provides us with salvation. Our worst enemy has the very same opportunity for God’s mercy at the foot of the cross. This should humble us when we understand God’s great love to us. It is unthinkable that someone would consider their past sins or life too great for the mercy of God. His mercy is efficacious for any sinner that needs and chooses salvation.

Does mercy start and stop at Calvary? Sometimes we choose to live like it does. Beaten down and tired, we hang on to an “Eeyore spirit”  (a family inside joke) where “I’ll be alright, I wasn’t expecting much anyway,” the broken down donkey of the Pooh stories laments.

So how have we moved from the flow of God’s great mercy through receiving His salvation to the sad dry world that has at most a tiny trickle of the mercy of God? Do we wonder why God answers the next person’s prayers yet ours hang there without a hope of seeing an answer? Yes, we cleverly use the reasoning that sometimes God’s answer is “no” and sometimes it is. But really, if He is answering “no” all the time we just might need to change what we are praying for. That could be a real problem if you are praying the Word of God correctly so that you know you are not praying out of His will. This leaves us in a dilemma. Is it God? No! Is it His Word? No! Is it us? Probably! This assignment of responsibility becomes dicey when we use it wrong. The devil wants us to believe we are beyond His mercy because we are not the favored one. That simply does not bear up in scripture. Just as His mercy equalizes all people at the foot of the cross, His mercy continues to operate in the same manner.

So how do we get in this unproductive and lonely place where the Spirit of God feels so at odds with the way we live? The principles of mercy are consistent throughout the Word of God and God does not operate outside of His Word. If we want His mercy we must carefully seek it out and live within its flow.