PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Luke 6:32-36
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36)
This line is another way of expressing the gospel and the golden rule.
Treat others how God treats you… how you want God to treat you!
If we treated everyone like this, we would fulfill God’s Law.
We would not dishonour or harm others, cheat or betray them.
We would not abuse them physically, sexually, emotionally or mentally.
This is what directs God’s heart, how Jesus treats us.
Mercy sees beneath the wrong to the child of God buried within.
Mercy is God’s way of breaking the cycle of wickedness.
He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked, to rescue them from those ways.
Yes, what they do is harmful, but they need help to break free.
We do not break the cycle of hate and hurt with more hate and hurt.
This seems radical and extreme, but it is the Jesus Way!
What if we made this the standard for church membership?
What if the church today was known for its extreme kindness and mercy?
PRAYER
Lord, love, mercy and grace are the way we are welcomed into your family. Help us to extend the same love, mercy and grace to others!
So much in life can be transactional – you do this for me and I’ll do this for you. I’ll do a job and get paid and that money I will use to buy things or services from someone else. It’s all transactional. Yet genuine love is not like that. It is about giving and not necessarily receiving. Jesus says: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Be gracious – don’t expect a return. Rather give generously – and not because it will win ‘brownie points’ in heaven. That irks me too. Rather out of the gratefulness of my heart for what Jesus has done for me – my gratitude applies to someone else – that they may enjoy the generousity as I enjoy Jesus’s gift of life to me! It’s not transactional – its about a heart that overflows in genuine love and thanks for a generous gift of life received!
Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. And in doing this, serving others, expecting nothing in return. Only then and then only our reward will be great. Only then will we be kids of the kingdom., living for Jesus, following His example. I need to be like Christ to all I meet and greet. An instrument of His peace.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.