I have sat here this morning staring at the blank computer screen and wondered what to write. I finished with the letters of the new testament yesterday. Since last June we have studied the letters of the new testament from Romans to Jude one chapter at a time. I am not sure just where we should go next. I have some thoughts swirling in my head. So this morning I went back and looked at some writing I did about 5 years ago. So I will pull from one of these for the next few days while the Lord gives me a plan.
My reading on this day would have been in Genesis 13-15, Psalm 6 and Matthew 5.
MERCY ~ in Psalms 6 David is crying out for mercy. In Matthew Jesus is telling us to pray for those who persecute us. In other words to extend mercy. And in Genesis God gives mercy to Abram. When you dig in, especially in the Old Testament you see that the heroes of the faith like Abram and Noah were just people. They had high points – like Abram followed God even when he didn’t know where He was leading, like rescuing Lot, and there were low points. Abram gave his wife away to another man, then even after He believed God when he said your descendants will be more numerous than the stars, he ‘helped’ God with the plan by sleeping with his wife’s servant and having a child with her. Yet Genesis 15:6 still says Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness. What is righteousness? To be set right with God. We can never live ‘right’ enough. Yet God in his mercy declares us righteous through the blood of Jesus. We cry out for mercy. We extend mercy when we pray for those who persecute us. God gives us mercy through Jesus.
Restore 