About a month ago, the Lord put the Sermon on the Mount on my heart, and it started showing up everywhere. I studied Matthew 5-7 daily for weeks, and I really started to dig deep into what God had to show me through Jesus' probably most famous sermon. While I still feel that God has more to teach me through these chapters (and really that I haven't even scratched the surface of all there is to learn), I have something He showed me specifically today that I would love to share.
What the Lord kept bringing to my attention over the last month was being Kingdom minded, but it went beyond that. It was more about Kingdom living and what it looks like to practically live a life seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). Today, what I learned is that we as followers of Jesus are to live lives that marked by mercy. His mercy.
My daily devotional today was discussing Luke 10: 25-37, and I just have to share what the Lord taught me through this passage of Scripture.
In Luke 10: 25-37, a lawyer asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life, and eventually, this leads to him asking Jesus who exactly is his neighbor that he is supposed to love as himself. Jesus answers his question with a story many of us know well, the story of the Good Samaritan. At the end, Jesus asks this lawyer who in this story was a neighbor to the man who fell among the thieves, and the lawyer says, "He that sheweth mercy on him." Jesus said, "Go, and do thou likewise."
Essentially, Jesus was saying that we are to be like the Good Samaritan and show mercy to others.
When I read this story this morning, it really connected with what I was learning through the Sermon on the Mount (God works like that), and it really stood out to me that all of the things this lawyer could have said he referred to the Good Samaritan as "he that sheweth mercy on him." He chose to use the word, "mercy."
In the Sermon on the Mount, in the Beatitudes, Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7). Being merciful to others is Kingdom minded.
I was in a church service a few weeks ago where the worship leader read the definition of mercy from Google off of his phone, and it really stuck with me. I will add it here: "compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm."
Sometimes, people in our lives let us down. They aren't there for us like we need them to be, they don't say the right things, and sometimes, they outright betray us.
When a friend lets you down, by the world's standards, it is absolutely in your "power" to just be done with that person (and essentially "punish" them by letting the friendship go), but that isn't what we as followers of Jesus are called to do. It isn't who we are called to be. We are called to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and in God's Kingdom, mercy wins.
The fact is, you have received the ultimate mercy from God when you received Christ as your Savior and He pardoned all of your sins. Another fact is, you deserve God's mercy far less than your friend who may have let you down deserves yours.
How could we not show mercy to others? How could we not forgive others? It is quite literally exactly what Jesus would do. It's what He's already done in our lives as believers.
The Hebrew word for "mercy" is חסד (chesed), and I actually have a necklace with this word on it.
We see this word in every single verse in Psalm 136. And what does Psalm 136 tell us? That His mercy, חסד, endures forever.
There is nothing too big for the mercy of God. There is nothing too bad for the mercy of God. If tonight you're reading this and you have never experienced that mercy of God that I'm talking about, you can have it. You can receive it right now.
Jesus, the Son of God, lived a sinless life, died on a cross and paid for all of our sins, was buried, and then rose from the dead on the third day, defeating death. That's how far He went in order to offer you His mercy.
If you will simply put your faith in Jesus tonight and ask Him to have mercy on you and to forgive you of your sins, that mercy will enter into your life and never leave. It endures forever.
Romans 10:9 tells us, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." It really is that simple.
If you just experienced the mercy of God for the first time and received Christ as your Lord & Savior, please contact me at lesliejessie20@gmail.com and let me know. I would love to celebrate that decision with you and talk with you about it!
I don't know about you all, but I am thankful for the mercy of God in my life. I am thankful that while it is absolutely in His power to punish and harm me, He instead has compassion and forgiveness for me. That's mercy.
"O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy endureth for ever." Psalm 136:26.
(Enjoy this fun photo of me from back in September at the fair with pizza and fries because I haven't taken pictures of myself in months haha)
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