God’s Mercy: His Compassion on Display

Grace has a constant companion: mercy. This daily devotional reviews what mercy is and its purpose, then giving some examples.

Devotions in the Self-Discipline Review series

Programming note: An update must have broken something again, because this doesn’t look normal and, after the title image, I couldn’t upload any other images. Hopefully, it will go back to normal soon.

All year, we’ve been looking at self-discipline. We looked at self-discipline as the operational plan for self-control because it talked about improvement.

We are reviewing everything and hopefully putting all of the building blocks together. What I am doing is going through all of the devotions for the year and pulling out the nuggets.

I am formatting this as a glossary page. If I already have one, I will combine them later.

We hear a lot about God’s grace. Not as often, we hear about God’s mercy. Most of the time, it is in conjunction with grace.

What Is Mercy?

God’s mercy is the unexpected way God responds in love to our needs. Disciples’ mercy is a characteristic of compassion for the needs of others, especially those who are in distress.

When mankind originally disobeyed Him, God could have written us off. He could have closed the door and not had anything to do with us ever again. Or worse, He could have just killed us. Instead, God showed us mercy. He gives us mercy every day (What Is Obedience?).
Sin, which leads to wrath, is the polar opposite of the Spirit — with which we are supposed to be filled. Sovereign God gets to decide crimes and punishments. There is hope for us because God is rich in mercy (Eph. 2: 4). Mercy comes out of God’s love, which is His character (I Jn. 4: 8) (How Are Disciples Merciful?).
We really didn’t expect God to show His mercy to us by designing the plan of salvation before He even created us — before Adam and Eve committed the original sin (Is Election Really Mercy?).
God’s mercy is also shown by the substitution of one man’s death to redeem many. Jesus became the propitiation so that we could be restored to the Father (What Was Jesus’ Mission (Part 2)).
God forgives us of sin because of His mercy (The Promises of God’s Forgiveness).
We didn’t do anything to earn this election. God is giving us the gift of grace because of His mercy (Is Election Really Mercy?).
We are not entitled to this mercy. We do not deserve it. We are guilty (Does God Really Forgive and Forget Sin?).
God’s love and mercy is intrinsically connected. God shows us mercy because we have sinned. That mercy is shown through love (What Was Jesus’ Mission (Part 2)).
God bestows this love and mercy on us even when we are spiritually dead (What Was Jesus’ Mission (Part 2)).
Because He loves us so much, God shows that through mercy (Does God Really Forgive and Forget Sin?).
Truth is what God is; mercy is what God does (Good versus Evil).
For those who have ABCDed, God’s mercy removes our guilt and gives us peace. His grace removes the impurities — i.e., sin — and makes us pure (The Fruits of Discerning the Voice of God).

The ABCDs of Salvation

If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.

A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord

D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us

The Disciple’s Job Description

Because God awaits to give us mercy and grace, we can approach Him unreservedly. We can come to Him with anything — large or small. We don’t have have to pray in the King James Version. We can know that we will be heard (How Does Boldness Help Consistency?).
God shows us mercy to promote His glory. But then, He is God. He deserves the glory (What Was Jesus’ Mission (Part 2)).
Godliness is equivalent to Old Testament fear of the Lord. That is where we see God’s mercy and love (Love and Obedience: The Last Two Steps in Salvation).
Disciples go from being indebted to His justice to being indebted to His love, power, and mercy (How Are We Debtors to God?).
God’s peace, mercy and love is at our center. That is our foundation. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind (Thankfulness in Prayer).
Mercy doesn’t negate or dilute God’s laws and commandments. Neither does justification and grace. Sin is still evil (Does God Really Forgive and Forget Sin?).
We are free from the law. Nowhere under the law was provision for grace and mercy (How Do We Let the Spirit Lead?).
We can show God’s love, but we can’t His mercy. We can’t out-mercy God or even give the same amount (Does God Really Forgive and Forget Sin?).
Given disciples are to forgive our enemies, perform acts of kindness, and have a deep desire to spread the gospel, it may be easy for some to limit mercy to the world’s definition of compassion (How Are Disciples Merciful?).
Mercy isn’t just about doing the do’s and not doing the don’ts. It is about changing our character to be more Christ. It is continuing to move forward on the sanctification road to reach the destination of righteousness (How Are Disciples Merciful?).
When we give mercy to others, we get mercy (How Are Disciples Merciful?).
The bottom line with mercy is humility. If we don’t perform whatever act of mercy in humility, it really isn’t mercy (How Are Disciples Merciful?).
Many of the translations have watered down mercy to kindness, help, or even love. They take out the concept of the unexpected way God responds in love to our needs (How Are Disciples Merciful?).
We live in fear by guarding against unbelief and presumption. We should not think we are entitled to anything. What we have came from God because of His love and mercy (How Are Disciples to be Rested?).
As we gain in knowledge, our hearts are opened to receive God. We receive God’s peace, mercy, and love at our center when we accept God’s salvation (Good versus Evil).
In a way, God’s mercy is unconditional, but in a way, there is a condition. God’s mercy is the unexpected way God responds in love to our needs. God bestows mercy on us regardless of our spiritual condition. He responds unexpectedly by loving us even though we were disobedient. We get the best of God’s mercy when we have ABCDed (The Fruits of Discerning the Voice of God).
We are to acknowledge and appreciate all that God is. We are to recognize His majesty and accept His gifts of grace, mercy, and love (Isaiah’s Message on Our Call from God).
God doesn’t leave us to our own devices. He looks after us. He gives us abundant grace and mercy (Isaiah’s Message on Our Call from God).
The foundation of hope is solely God. It is dependent on His holiness, His power, and His mercy (How Do We Gain Salvation through Hope?).
It is God’s mercy that tips the conscience from alarmed to peaceful (What Does Our Conscience Have to Do with the Spirit World?)

The Purpose of Mercy

God has one purpose — to further His kingdom. He does that by choosing to show us grace and mercy. He is not going to change His purpose (Blessings, not Curses).
We are to do the charitable acts through mercy (Disciples and Charitableness).
We shouldn’t make blind judgments. We should judge without knowing all the facts. We shouldn’t judge without the mercy (The Lenient Judgment of Others).
When we pray and sincerely ask for forgiveness and start obeying God, He will delight in us. Let’s roost a little on God forgiving us. God — in all of His mercy — forgives us when we ask (What Is the Relationship Between Righteousness and Obedience?).
Our words may be well received — they may not be. We may have to accomplish our witnessing through longsuffering. If those we are witnessing to want to get into a debate, we are not provoked. We have to remember that there is just one sin that God will not forgive — unbelief. We have to lead with God’s mercy (How Does Longsuffering Help Consistency?).
Everyone who generally approaches Him with a true request for salvation will hear Jesus’ forgiveness. His mercy is ready for us (Salvation from the Cross).
When we think of mercy, we think of God’s mercy. When we think of truth, we think of Jesus saying “… I am the way and the truth and the life …” (Jn. 14: 6 NIV). We have to take the mercy a step further, though. I think that is why other versions translated the words as love and kindness. Because we are shown mercy, we should show mercy to others. We have to do our job of proclaiming the gospel and making disciples (The Rewards of Faithfulness).
Now, don’t get caught up because you don’t have barns and you don’t drink wine. Just as God doesn’t want us to be box checkers, He wants us to know we will be blessed in a variety of ways. All of those blessings will mean we are “… completely filled, and … will overflow …” (Prov. 3: 9-10 CSB) with His goodness and mercy (Rewards Focusing on God).
We are to witness, worship, show love, have mercy, and imitate (What Was Jesus’ Mission (Part 2)).
We are to feel pity when someone is experiencing suffering or distress. Love softened by sorrow must be felt from the heart and result in actions. Because it is felt from the heart, that means the words spoken are not careless or cruel. Instead, it is mercy. Our interactions are real (What Is Expected of Disciples?).
Tied with the charity is mercy. In this way, we show God’s mercy (In Support of Others).
Think about Who God is. He is love (I Jn. 4: 8). He promotes order and harmony. That produces contentment. When we add in God’s mercy, it takes that contentment up a notch (Being Content Because We Are Godly).
When we get passed the feelings of entitlement, we realize the extent of His mercy and love in designing the plan of salvation for our restoration (Being Content Because We Are Godly).
The mercy is extended to us because of the love. Love is usually a drawing card. Stern, heavy-handed dictatorship isn’t (Comprehending Christ’s Love).
Sin stole our contentment. We are no longer need to gauge the degree of human deprivation. Instead, we can become recipients of God’s mercy (Being Content with What We Have).

Examples of Mercy

We know that David prayed through whatever he was experiencing. Take Psalm 86 for example. It is a prayer for mercy (What Is Prayer?)
The tax collector asked for forgiveness. He asked, expecting mercy. Oh, yes. God does not get tired of hearing our forgive-me prayers. How do we know? If he expects us to forgive others seventy times seven times (Lk. 17: 3-4), won’t He forgive us even more? (Devoted to Prayer).
Jesus through mercy exercised self-restraint so that we would not be provoked (How Does Longsuffering Help Consistency?).
Jesus was put up on the cross — so everyone could see the sacrifice that would pay the price for our sins. Because Jesus did that, God isn’t punishing us as we deserve – our sins are unavenged. That is where God’s mercy comes into play (Did Jesus or His Blood Redeem Us?).
Jesus wasn’t praying for just anyone. He was praying for the nail tappers. He prayed for the spear wielder. He even prayed for the that’s-an-order guys. Did they know they shed innocent blood? The centurion figured it out. What does this say about the mercy of Jesus? (Prayers from the Cross).
Jesus, when He was here on earth, showed how that mercy is manifested through love (What Was Jesus’ Mission (Part 2)).

Seeking to imitate God in our lives