Such simply words mercy, grace. Did you ever wonder what they mean. I have, I wonder about everything God says and does. So when setting out to define these two words I knew I was onto something big.
Grace literally opens the gates of heaven to us, grace is getting what we don't deserve. Mercy on the other hand, keeps us from Hell, mercy is not getting what we do deserve.
Let me ask you, "What brings you to your knees and makes you beg for mercy?"
I feel overwhelmed, unequipped inadequate to even think, that I could begin to define all that mercy encumbers. Then I read this, "To all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12. God, through Jesus gave believers the authority to speak through His word. Here it is, mercy is why Jesus did what He did. Without mercy God could not even look at us. Mercy is the reason we as believers can embrace eternity with confidence. Mercy is the reason God sent His only Son to this earth, to pour His precious blood over our sins, so that when God looks at us He doesn't see our sins but the shed blood of His son Jesus. Covering us, protecting us, saying in a way, "these are mine father." Think about it, if your child, or someone you love showed such a profound, unselfish act of love towards another person would you have the heart to turn down their request? Wouldn't your heart just break and wouldn't you just want to cry out and say, "Abba Father, have mercy on him/her, have mercy on me." I know mine would.
Now grace is unmerited favor from God. Some mistake it as a license to sin, because if we repent, God will forgive us. Without grace we would not be able to continuously sin, then repent, then be forgiven. God doesn't give us just one shot at redemption He is the true author of the "open door policy." Grace, however, is much more than unmerited favor. It is God's gift, it is His way of giving us a fool proof road to eternity with Him. When we understand the magnitude of what a gift grace is, a synergy begins between yourself and God. All of a sudden your dreams and desires, the ones deep in your heart, become God's dreams and desires. It is such an incredible union you cannot fathom if they are your dreams and desires or His. Grace is both the desire and power to do, His will. I John 2:17 says, "The world and its desires pass away, "but the man who does the will of God: lives forever. God's enormous gift of grace, first gives us the desire to please Him and then the power to to it.
Mercy keeps us from Hell, while grace opens the gates of heaven. What a good God we serve.
His mercies are new everyday, like the manna He supplied to the Israelites when they entered the Promise Land, giving them just what they needed for that day. So it is with His mercies. They are new everyday. Whatever trial we may be facing we can be assured that God's mercy and grace will always be sufficient for what we are called to do.
I pray that God gives you the desires of your heart and that you thank Him for the wonderful gifts of mercy and grace. Until next time!
