Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father give us a greater understanding of just how merciful He is to us every day. Father, as some of your children have sung, "Your mercy rains from Heaven, like confetti at a wedding. And I am celebrating in the downpour!" Thank you for your mercy Father. Our every breath, our daily bread. Help us to show mercy to others as you have shown us mercy. Help us to love others and give as you have loved and given to us. May your love, giving, and mercy nourish us as it all flows through us to others, like roots of a tree. Father, in the name of your Son Jesus, by the Spirit who lives within us, make us able to obey your will in this and in all things. And reward us with your delight when we do!
Your Morning Song: "Let Mercy Lead" by Rich Mullins
Your Morning Scripture: Luke 6:35-36
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
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Do we love, do good, and lend in this way? What is this great reward? Based on your obedience to these verses, or lack thereof, how sure are you that you will receive this great reward from God? What does it mean to be sons (and daughters) of the Most High? What does it mean to be merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful?
As children of the Most High, we ought to behave as He behaves. Love as He loves. Do good as He does good. And the reward we will receive will not simply be one thing but many things, all given to us in the intimacy God has welcomed us into by His son. We will receive His approval, His delight, His joy, His protection, His maturing, His songs over us, His peace guarding us, and more, always more.
The world loves and shows mercy according to who the "other" is. Does this person love me? Then perhaps I will love them. Does this person show me mercy? Then perhaps I will show them mercy. It is circumstantial. Shallow. Inconsistent. Finite. Fallen.
As God's children we love and show mercy according to who God is. It does not matter who the "other" is. This person does not love me. I will love them. This person does not show me mercy. I will show them mercy. Our love and generosity and mercy must be founded and grounded in God's character alone.
Do you live this way? It has taken me years, but I mostly do. I still struggle sometimes, to love and give and show mercy according to who God is, and not by how others treat me. But it is worth the struggle to live this way so that God will be pleased with my life. I repent and God washes my feet with His forgiveness, and now I am free to try again! His pleasure at my daily soul-deep struggle to obey is the greatest reward of all.
What does it mean to be merciful as God is merciful? To love as He loves? To give as He gives? He does all of these things because of who He is and not because of who others are or how they treat Him. And we are God's children if we do what He wants in all things. We will not "be" if we do not "do." And this cannot be faked. God will not be mocked.
Church, may we be a people known by our sincere, obedient, daily, desperate efforts to please God from our inside to our out. May we love, give, and show mercy because of who we are in Christ and not because of who others are. May we receive a great reward. May we be sons and daughters of the Most High.
And may we not wonder or guess at His pleasure and approval. If we obey His clear instructions we can have clear, sure, expectant hope. He is the foundation for our attitudes and actions. He is our Father. He will reward us, His children.
