BECAUSE OF MERCY



Your relationship with God is based solely upon mercy, and always will be. And it will never be based on anything else. “He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:5). You are saved by grace and you live by grace — grace is synonymous with mercy.

You will never get to the point where you don’t need God’s grace and you don’t need God’s mercy. If you are a Christian who doesn’t rely exclusively on God’s grace to sustain you then you are a Christian that doesn’t really take sin seriously. You may take some sins seriously—the big sins, the visible sins, the sins that other people commit—but you often lapse into a pattern in which you don’t take seriously your own sin, because you have determined that your sin is rather small in comparison and you think you can deal with your sin all on your own. You eventually get to the place where you believe you are living at a high enough spiritual level that begging for mercy is no longer necessary. I’ve got news for you. It will never happen. Your relationship with God is always about mercy. You will never get beyond the need for God’s grace.

When you begin to despair over your sin, to take it seriously, you’re on your way to victory. When you learn to despair over your sin only then will you have the power to defeat your sin. Someone reading this is thinking, “If I’m already forgiven for all my sins past present and future, what’s to stop me from sinning all I want and cashing in my forgiveness ticket?” My reply would be, sin knows how to do only one thing, and it can accomplish only one thing. It knows only how to destroy, it doesn’t know when to let up, and it never ends well for you. No one ever says, “When I began to betray my marriage and neglect my family and live only for myself, my spouse and I were suddenly happier than we’ve ever been before.” That’s not how it works.

When you begin saying, “Because of God’s grace I sin more than I want.” You are on the road victory. If you want to create lasting change in your life you do it one day at a time. God’s word to you is that He will give you a huge head start every day of your life. He will love you forever. He will never stop loving you. You can count on His love every day. He will shower you with mercy and grace and forgiveness ever day of your life. You can begin every day right with Him. You can count on His mercy and His faithfulness forever. “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh every morning.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 80-20 Rule

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. The Pareto Principle, or 80/20 rule, states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.   Although this rule was first applied in Italy when Pareto was looking at the dispersal of wealth, it has since become a rule of thumb for many businesses.   It has been said that 20% of your workforce does 80% of the work, or 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients.   I think this law comes into play in our lives as well.   Life is 20% what happens to you and 80% what you make of it. There are tons of stories about people who come out of difficult situations — gang life, in and out of jail, drug addiction, broken families, abuse – yet still seem to rise to the top.   And of course, there are many stories of those who have been given...
Read more

Control Yourself

When it comes to our life, we have nothing to say about our birth and little say about our death, but in between these two events most of the decisions are ours to be made. Are you letting life and circumstances control you, or are you controlling your own life and destiny with God’s help. Don't let life pass you by when you have the God-given ability to make things happen. I've heard it said: You can't control the length of your life, but you can control its use. You can't control your facial appearance, but you can control its expression. You can't control the weather, but you can control the moral atmosphere that surrounds you. You can't control the distance of your head above the ground, but you can control the height of the contents in your head. You can't control the other fellow's annoying faults, but you can see to it that you do not develop similar faults. Why worry about things you cannot cont...
Read more

Bounce Back

As a 7th grader in junior high school, I was devastated when I was cut from the starting 8th grade football team and sent to the second team.   I felt disappointed, embarrassed and dejected.   Latter that week, I spoke with my grandfather who passed on these words of wisdom, “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce back that matters.”   I took those words to heart. The Bible says in Proverbs 25:11, “Timely advice is lovely, like golden apples in a silver basket.” I valued his wise words and committed to doing my best for this second string team, instead of pouting and complaining over my sense of failure. I committed to working hard, giving my all to bounce back. It served me well as I entered high school and played on two state championship teams. I learned that day that what happens to me in life doesn’t count as much as how I react to those things.   I had a choice the day I was cut from the team—I could wallow in misery and quit the team, or I ...
Read more