4 Days to Christmas: "Blessed are the merciful"
- Contributed by Merv
- Dec 21, 2017
- 2 min read
Read: Matthew 5:7
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.’
Observe:
Normally the person of authority or power tends to be the one who decides the kind of punishment or consequence for the wrongdoer. That person also decides whether to be lenient or harsh to the recipient. A quote taken from Mahatma Gandhi – an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. If we want God to exact punishment to people who wrong, slighted or misjudged us, I wonder who would be left on this planet.
Jesus said that you are blessed when you show mercy to others because later on you’ll be shown mercy too. A wrong cannot be undone and wounded hearts take time to heal. However we can make a choice to decide the kind of outcome we want for others and ourselves. When we show mercy to people who hurt us, God will also show mercy to us when we do wrong unto others. We all definitely need mercy from God because of our imperfect nature. It may be gratifying to see someone else paying the price and suffer for the lies or wrong that they had done. However God’s joy and desire is to see the person having a chance to repent and accept Jesus Christ as Lord.
Personally I find that the best ‘revenge’ to someone who did wrong to me is that they experience Jesus personally as Lord and Saviour. A person’s life will be transformed when he realized how sinful we all are and express gratitude to Jesus who came to die on the cross on our behalf. Our old self has to die with the sins on the cross and allow the new creation within us emerge. If God had not first loved us so deeply and show mercy to us, I wonder where we all would be.
Apply & Do:
To grant mercy despite my anger and resentment to those who offend or try to make my life more difficult than it is. Pray for those who did wrong to us that they experience God and repent from their sins.
Prayer:
Dear Father in heaven, thank you greatly for having Jesus die for our sins on the cross. Without Jesus’ sacrifice, we have no salvation to even talk about. May I learn to love and show mercy to others. It’s not going to be easy but I pray that the Holy Spirit would teach me to do so no matter what kind of people I met or work with.
Image Source: Flickr
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