In our Bible Study every Wednesday night, here in the tiny little village of Elkton, we have been studying the book of Romans. Paul's letter to the Gentiles for the sake of the Jews. Or something like that...
Last night we talked about God's mercy, what that is and what it looks like. How it's effected our lives and how we would describe it personally.
Mercy and Grace go hand-in-hand; Grace is giving a person what they need in spite of what they deserve, Mercy is giving a person compassion when they deserve judgement.
God's mercy is beyond my understanding. His grace is so unfathomable... and that He wants to give these things to me when I make stupid mistakes and do the same sinful things over and over and over is... amazing. It's invaluable, it's precious.
In my life God's mercy has been so great and so constant... He not only saves me so that I can live a righteous life leading to eternity, He actually gives me tools to help me do it; and then He gives me more tools when I have a hard time with the ones I have, and then He sits me down and helps me figure them out when I can't do it on my own.
I just think... wow. It would be perfectly reasonable for God to save us and then let us figure everything else out on our own, even condemn us for not living perfect and blameless lives from there on out. But He's willing to do all the work for us... all He needs is our submission to His will: control of our lives.
It's such a simple little thing... and yet this one thing I cannot give over. I give it over and take it back again. And again.
In our Bible study we talked about a living sacrifice and what the difference is between a living and a dead sacrifice. The conclusion was that the living sacrifice gets up and walks off the alter at times.
We have to continually sacrifice our will to God because it doesn't die. It wakes up and gets down off the alter when left to it's own devices.
Thank God for His mercy!
