Merciful means to have active compassion for those in need or distress.
When directly faced with someone in obvious need, we may not help - but we still want to. We see that kind of action as “right” and often rewarding.
Americans typically make donations within six weeks of a big disaster, when media coverage is the most intense. Their contributions usually slow to a crawl six months later, once the cameras stop rolling and the news cycle moves on. Hurricane Katrina brought the highest giving amount ever - $4.2B (with almost half of all Americans responding). The 9/11 disaster is second at $2.6B (with almost 3/4 of Americans giving!). - The Conversation (Sept 2017)
Mercy sometimes seems to compete with justice (i.e. making things right). I might withhold mercy from another because it might make their behavior worse, or because I am too resentful over the unfairness of it all. Of course, someone else might do the same to me, even when I plead for and need mercy the most.
But what if someone doesn’t deserve mercy from me?
Holding a resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. It can be a sticky pit of victim anger in which forgiveness is the only means of escape. But how to forgive? The psalmist focuses on God’s mercy and forgiveness and the gratitude it creates within his soul. Originating from the Gospel of love and mercy, this gratitude tends to extinguish my resentment by providing me with mercy I can share with my offender.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
I need mercy, but probably don’t deserve it.
No one deserves mercy, especially God’s mercy. But conviction of wrong-doing and a sense that mercy is needed are the critical first two steps to receiving mercy. We do not execute either of these first steps when it comes to our relationship with God - they are both products of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, Martyn Lloyd-Jones (minister of Westminster Chapel in London for over 30 years) reflected on this, saying "You will never make yourself feel that you are a sinner, because there is a mechanism in you as a result of sin that will always be defending you against every accusation." The next step to receiving mercy stems from the first two - we ask for it. With humans, mercy may or may not come, depending upon the one in position to grant the mercy. With God, He always desires to grant mercy to those who ask of Him,
For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
Do I do what is merciful - or what is just?
God’s attributes never conflict and do not hinder each other. They always complement, heighten and provide synergy with the others. Consider both justice and mercy at all times - in faith and humility, with God's perspective. As we decide what to do for another, mercy provides a window of opportunity to carefully consider what just and loving action to take that will be the best for the other.
Jesus humbly went to the cross to satisfy the penalty of our sin (justice) while providing restoration to believers (mercy). We can humbly forgive another who has inflicted damage to us (mercy) while also communicating the harm done and taking loving action to prevent a recurrence (justice).
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?
Only God can grant merciful forgiveness of sin.
God's mercy can restore a right relationship with our Creator. Man can act mercifully to others, but can never attain God's forgiveness apart from Christ.
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus compassionately connected people to God and His gifts.
Jesus' acts of mercy often started with an immediate physical need, but were always done with the ultimate goal of reconciling people to God, the most merciful act of all.
Jesus answered her (Samaritan woman), 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.'
And he said to the man with the withered hand, 'Come here.' And he said to them, 'Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?' But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
So what do I do now?
Praise God for the mercy He shows me. Let me eagerly and cheerfully show mercy to others. While helping others in need, help me to realize that every person has the need to know Christ better.
Ask: When is the last time I have needed mercy?
When is the last time I have shown mercy?
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Prayer
Merciful God, thank you for your redeeming work in my life. Through Christ, you lifted me from a pit of hopelessness into your very presence. Help me to understand what this means and make it real to me.
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,
How are we “hard-wired" to be merciful?
We want to help others in need. It is when we selfishly consider the cost we may endure that we often back away from merciful actions. But we step forward when we selflessly consider the cost which another is enduring by imagining it as our own.
Research shows that when we see others being harmed, our brains react in similar ways as if we were being harmed....These events also stimulate us to think of our own experiences of pain or trauma; in other words, our 'autobiographical memory'. We remember the times when we were in danger or in pain and our brain, in a sense, reaches out and imagines how the actual victims are thinking and feeling. - Psychology Today Mar 2011 (God's wisdom shining though a secular source)
How did David go from adultery and murder to being known as the "father" of Jesus?
It was only because of God's abundant mercy, lavishly poured out from God on one who understood his despicable actions and desperate need for God's forgiveness. David came to the point of recognizing his sin and his need and asked God for mercy. Much later, two blind men also asked for mercy from Jesus while calling Him the ‘Son of David’.
"A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions." - Psalm 51
"And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” - Matthew 9:27
"At Calvary" - Newell
"By God’s Word at last my sin I learned;
Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned,
Till my guilty soul imploring turned,
To Calvary.
Mercy there was great, and grace was free;
Pardon there was multiplied to me;
There my burdened soul found liberty,
At Calvary." - 2nd verse and chorus