Mercy

"but God, who is rich in MERCY, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive in Christ (by grace you have been saved)." Ephesians 2:4-5

Last weekend, the Lord began to burden my heart with the thoughts of His Mercy. I think I have studied grace inside and out over the years. I bet 10 times more Christian books have been written about grace than mercy. That makes sense. We all want to think about the gifts we receive that we do not deserve more than the punishment we do not receive that we do deserve. 

My mind kept thinking about a sin that I have alot of trouble with. One of the "Respectable SIns" Jerry Bridges wrote a book about. You know, those sins that seem to slip by in the modern church that are just accepted as human nature. Well, I began to feel very guilty for my repeated sinning, it had become a habit. I called out to God to repent for this sin and turn 180 degress from it. Not to just ask for forgivness one more time and then like a dog returning to its vomit find myself committing the same sin next week and repeating the same prayer of forgivenss.(see last weeks blog about repentance.) It struck me how merciful God is. Of all the sins I commit in my life and how God sees to it that I have not received the punishment I deserve. I am reminded of the eternal punishment for which He promises to save me from but what about the earthly punishment. Yes, He could choose for me to have earthly punishment for my sin. For which I am grateful because that would be deserved and I should grow from that experience for only loving Fathers discipline their children. But He also has chosen on many, many occasions not to punish me for those sins. I have escaped many earthly consequences I definitely deserved. Oh, I cried out in thankfulness on that day for the mercy I have received: so undeserved.

Yesterday, I visited the men's prison. I met men who had murdered, who had driven drunk and killed another, probably rapists -  I don't know. But they were just regular men, nothing menacing about them. They were kind and polite. Some will never leave that prison. They are forgotten people. However,  I wonder how many of us think -" there but for the grace of God, go I." I will not take for granted my freedom again. This  morning, I woke up and took the dog out at 5:30. The sky is dark then and the stars are so incredibly bright and I thought of those men who never see that night sky. That is what God's mercy is like. We deserve that prison but through Jesus we have freedom.