Matthew 5:7: The merciful are blessed, for they will be shown mercy. [HCSB]
That Scripture verse from the Sermon on the Mount came as a Verse of the Day to my inbox the other day. It started me thinking about mercy and being merciful.
The word for mercy is “eleémón” and it means full of pity, merciful, compassionate. One of the word studies I checked said it is “acting consistently with the revelation of God’s covenant.”
We are shown mercy by our Father God who loved His creation so much that He sent His beloved Son to die to save it. We now, having experienced that covenant of God’s mercy are to be merciful to others.
Unfortunately, being merciful is not overflowing in modern society. We have little patience with anyone or anything that goes against our “opinions.” We seldom give people the benefit of the doubt. The media is intent upon finding anything wrong they can dig up in the lives of others. Even our 30-minute national news outline is 29 minutes of all that is wrong everywhere, ending with 1 minutes of an “uplifting” story.
God’s people are to be different from this “present age.” We are to be merciful to others. This is also one of those “back at ya” rules in that the more merciful we are to others, the more mercy we will receive in return.
Mercy is to influence our attitudes toward all people—family, friends, enemies … and yes even politicians and broadcasters and freeway drivers! It should also drive our actions. When we are merciful, we pray, we give, we spend our time and money on others, we help, we support, we love.
Oh, Father, let us be a channel of the mercy you gave us … let it flow from Your heart to ours and then to those we meet every day. Amen.
