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A combined effort in Mercy ~In His Word 11-3-2025
Who do you give thanks to? Today we are combining some thoughts on this subject from November 21, 2005 and this day to remind us as we go into November that there are reasons to be thankful even if things don't go as planned.
Are you able to find a way to be grateful when the world
seems to be dumping all the things you used to be grateful for in the trash, or
maybe they seem to be taking it away from you?
Is life just getting too hard for you to thank God for
anything? If so how can we find the words and means to be kind and thankful to
others? Let’s look, in His Word!
Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 136:1
"Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like
You, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out Your
right hand; the earth swallowed them. You in Your mercy have led forth the
people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength to Your
holy habitation. Exodus 15:11-13
And there I
will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from
between the two cherubim, which are on the ark of the Testimony, about
everything, which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. Exodus
25:22
"Therefore, know that the LORD your God, He is God, the
faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those
who love Him and keep His commandments; Deuteronomy 7:9 While I was growing up,
my dad’s family used to quote the first bible verse each night before supper.
At that time it was what we said, as Americans, before we ate. We all said
‘grace’. Most of us did not have a clue about why we would need to pray for our
food. As a young teen I thought it a bit strange to pray this before meals, and
it was never really explained to me. We just did it.
Today I
look at it different.
Today I see
that it is at really cool thing to have prayed, because it was acknowledging
that God’s mercy brought that food to the table for us. Today I can know that
my God has supplied all my needs, even when I didn’t think about it, or even
know Him personally He was taking care of me.
So lets
think on that verse, His Mercy endures forever, so we are to thank Him for it,
as the writer of the psalm did. What is mercy?
MERCY-properly <, che'sed, >kindness; pity), a virtue
which inspires us with compassion for others, and inclines us to assist them in
their necessities- according to Strongs and Biblesoft.
When we
were still in our sins, our God had mercy on us; He sent His son to die that we
might live. Now think about that for a moment and realize that God- the creator
of all things, the all powerful, the all-mighty God, that one! He loved you so
much; He cared for you so much that He gave up His son just for you! Most of us would not give up our children to
save our own lives let alone someone else’s!
We love our
children more than our own lives, and we would give up our own lives for them,
and many of you do daily! You give up any hope of having fun to work and
provide for your family. You give up time, when you could be lazing in front of the
television to lay on the hard floor and play cars with your son, or sit on the
floor and play dolls with your daughter. You give up that time of relaxing when
you have sent your children to bed to stop and read them a bedtime story. Yes I
think if we think about it, we know how to give mercy to our children in a
small way. But God does everything in a big way!
Now put
yourself in the child’s spot; God the Father loves us enough to spend time with
us, to read us a bedtime story. Some of us know of this as the Bible, in fact
He even had it written just for us! He
knew we would have a lot of questions that needed answering, and just as we may
read a book that deals with something you are going through, He had a book
written for you and I to read when we are going through something we don’t
understand. It has the answers, and gives us things to think on as well as talk
to our Daddy God about.
eI know
sometimes people have problems with prayer. they forget how to talk to God. Did
you know that we neglect Him by not spending enough time with Him in prayer?
Yet, His mercy endures forever, so we receive forgiveness and encouragement
just the same. When we take, or make the
time to just sit there and thank Him for things! Today I remembered thanking Him for a migraine
that started after I was done driving on a long trip, not during! I was able to
rest and restore my mind and vision before I had to get moving on the road!
He tells us in Exodus 25 that He will meet with us between
the wings of the cherubim, in the MERCY seat! Okay, now I want to ask you a
question; how many times have you not stopped to pray and ask for forgiveness
or encouragement because you were afraid to? You thought God was mad at you
because you had been doing the wrong thing?
When children get
punished for being disobedient little kids they often think, “Mommy doesn’t
like me right now,” because I am upset with them for their behaviors. Of
course, after we have our little talk they know that I love them, and they find
mercy in my voice.
God is the model of that mercy. He meets you and I in the
mercy seat, and do you know that the mercy seat was made with pure gold? Look
it up in Exodus 25;17-22 to read the description. It was made pure, not defiled
in any way! God did not say, “Hey Teresa you need to get yourself up here and
talk to Me!” Instead, He tells me “I am
here, full of mercy waiting to meet with you. I will come down to your level to
talk….” “Meet me here.”
M- Mercy
endures forever,
E-
Endurance – it’s everlasting
R- Reality
is He is Real and really cares and His mercy shows us that.
C- Created
a way for us to speak with God on a daily basis, through Jesus Christ,
Y- Your
blessing of forgiveness and encouragement and direction comes through His
Mercy!
"Therefore, know that the LORD your God, He is God, the
faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those
who love Him and keep His commandments; Deuteronomy 7:9
Our God
will not leave us alone in our sins, if we meet with Him. Meeting requires us
to advance a little and Him to advance as well. Then we meet in the middle. We
meet with Him we thank Him and obey His direction in our lives and we will see
that His Mercy is there, has been there with us.
If not for God’s mercy I would be living in sin, probably
alone and sad. God’s mercy answered my prayer for someone to love; He gave me
my husband, and my children. He has given me so much mercy when I sin and
realize I messed up. Just as my children should come to me when they mess up, I
bring my heart to God and ask His forgiveness. You know what? He gives it to me
every time! Every time I do the wrong thing or say the wrong thing and crush
someone else’s heart in the process, God gives me mercy and grace. He shows me
how to be like Him. Then when someone says or does the wrong thing to me, I too
can show them mercy. And so on, and so
on… you get the picture? Our God is
faithful and will continue to be so as long as I acknowledge Him as my Lord,
and even longer than that! His mercy lasts forever, and ever!
Okay, now
this week I want you to share what you are thankful for be thankful for God’s
mercy.
Quick right now! Three or 4 things you are thankful for!
1-
A loving God and family
2-
Shorter Migraine Aroras!
3-
Quiet in the mornings
4-
Friends who will pray for me at odd hours
I could and will add you my
readers! It blesses me to know that I have brought you joy over the years an
encouragement in living life in His Word!
Until next week, keep on reading
in His Word…