Mercy on DisplaySýnishorn

“For nothing now shall separate us

From Your love and from Your presence

Forever at the table of the Lord”

MERCY - OUR HOPE IN TOUGH TIMES

We are living displays of God’s mercy. We’ve been adopted by God, rescued from our failure and inability. We’ve been gifted a new identity, a new family, and a new inheritance. When we discover the mercy of God in Jesus, the Holy Spirit breathes His life into us - reviving our hopes and dreams; giving us the confidence to trust His promises and move forward in faith.

But when hardship comes our way we can so easily forget the mercy of God. When our experiences don’t match what we expected, it’s not easy to remember that we are loved. And this is exactly what Paul is talking about in Romans 8. His encouragement is to keep our eyes on the Father’s mercy. No matter what we’re going through - whether grief or loss, conflict or rejection, ridicule or misunderstanding, sickness or disease, disappointment or failure - nothing can separate us from ‘the love of God that is in Christ Jesus’.

We will never be forsaken or abandoned by God - because our belonging is secure in His mercy. Sometimes we may have to face the consequences of our poor decisions; we may find ourselves suffering because of others’ attitudes and bad choices; sometimes we are powerless to avoid circumstances that we have no control over. When things are tough we’re all vulnerable to imagining that our relationship with God has somehow been damaged or changed. But these experiences are not evidence that we’ve been rejected by God, these trials are not proof that God’s mercy has somehow expired. Because God’s mercy isn’t half-hearted, he’s already given us everything of himself - he withheld nothing at the Cross. So whatever we’re going through, it’s not because the basis of our relationship with God has shifted from mercy. And sometimes we need to be reminded of that.

Of course we have an enemy who wants to make us feel inadequate and unworthy - to make us doubt our place at the table of the Lord. But the best way to combat the condemnation and lies that whisper to our hearts, is to remember again the mercy of God. In fact, Paul tells us that there is only one person who has the right to judge us, and that’s Jesus. And what’s he doing instead? He’s standing before our Father, interceding on our behalf! Wow, that should get us smiling - there is no condemnation in the mercy of God!!! There’s nothing we can say or do or think, that will disqualify us from His love. So whatever you’re going through, let mercy lead your heart back to the peace that is found in the unfailing love of God.

1. How do I normally respond to the hard things that life brings?
2. In what ways should God’s mercy change the way I process hardships?