Merriam-Webster defines the word mercy as follows:
1 a: compassion, leniency, or restraint (as in imposing punishment) shown especially to an offender or to one subject to the power of another
The Bible says:
The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.
~Lamentations 3:22-23
Contemplating God’s mercy.
It’s good for the soul to reflect on God’s mercy. Our sin is more serious than we imagine it to be. We often downplay our sin, because we look at it relative to the sins of others. But the Bible tells us that God judges our sin against His holiness, and by that standard, we all fall short (Romans 3:23).
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
~I John 1:8
For the honor of your name, O Lord, forgive my many, many sins.
~Psalm 25:11
O God, you know how foolish I am; my sins cannot be hidden from you.
~Psalm 69:5
Scripture makes it clear that we all have a sin problem. Justice demands that sin be punished, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
But God’s mercy is great! He sent His Son to take our punishment upon Himself so that justice would be done. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins so that God could remain perfectly just while offering us His mercy. Isn’t it wonderful that God loves us that much!?
Mercy and love.
God’s love and mercy go hand in hand. Meditate on this passage from the Psalms, and let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart about His love for you.
The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever.
He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.
The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.
~Psalm 103:8-14
Those of us who know God as our Father can take great comfort in His mercy and His love.
Mercy without limits.
God’s mercy is boundless and all-encompassing. When I mess up: when I’m unloving towards my wife, when I’m short-tempered with my kid, when I’m unkind to a stranger, when I fall short of perfection in a hundred different ways each and every day, God’s mercy is there to catch me.
For those who know Christ as Savior, God’s mercy covers every sin: past, present, and future. This doesn’t mean that we have a license to sin (Paul addresses that in Romans 6:1-2), but it means that when we sin, forgiveness is guaranteed.
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
~I John 1:9
So let this be a reminder to you that if you are a child of God, you are forgiven, you’ve been cleansed by the blood of Christ, and God’s mercy surrounds you at all times.
Lamentations 3:23 says that God’s mercies begin afresh each morning, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait for daybreak. Remember, God is everywhere, and it’s always morning somewhere!
