Wonderful, Merciful, Savior

For me, the concept of mercy has been one that has alluded me. I've understood grace for about three years now. I didn't understand redemption until about 8 months ago. What can I say, I'm a recovering legalist. Learning the character of God and who He is continues to be a relatively new reality for me. However, He is faithful to teach me about Himself in the small doses that He deems me ready for. Tonight, He decided I was ready to understand His mercy.

We are studying Revelation this fall in an 11 week overview of the book. It is hard and heavy but SO good! Tonight we covered the first 6 seals (yes, you read that correctly). It was pretty intense. Reading about the judgements to come can be overwhelming and dismaying (to say the least). At the end of the lesson, we talked about some reasons we are so anxious about what we find in the Revelation. One idea presented was that we are merciful people, not wanting to see disaster fall on people - especially of an eternal nature. She said something that then opened my eyes to the meaning of mercy. We are merciful because we are created in the image of God - our Merciful God.

We read about His patience and desire for all to be saved (II Peter 3:9), His heartbreak in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:10-11), and His compassion on those doomed to eventual destruction (Jonah 4:2). If we feel such torment over the souls of our fellow man (even those we do not know), how much more torment does their Creator feel for them?

She made this statement and it kept me in my seat for a good 5 minutes after the study was over, frozen in humility. Everyday that we wake up and are still on this earth, it is God shedding His mercy on those He desires to turn to back to Him. He is holding back His judgement from those still in need of Him.

I will never grumble about a morning given again - no matter how my soul aches to finally be home. He is a wonderful, merciful Savior!