DAY 144: THE MERCIFUL ONE
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
PSALM 23:6
God is infinitely merciful. He can never run out of mercy. Do you know why? Because He can never run out of Himself. He is so merciful that He can never run out of patience with us. He looks at us and knows instantly why we are the way we are sometimes, we are dust. So He upholds mercy. He forgives, He accommodates, and He tolerates. Let me say that again, He tolerates all our excesses and we have a lot of it.
Be honest, knowing yourself, can you even tolerate yourself? You can’t even tolerate your siblings, pastor, neighbors, or colleagues. Now imagine that God tolerates you and all the people in this world, including murderers and rapists. God dey try abeg (that’s pidgin, I wish I could express it any other way). That is why the merciful are blessed because it takes a heart full of God to extend mercy.
A TAG TEAM
I find it amazing that when God wanted to choose what qualities to follow us He chose these two. They are a tag team. We need His goodness because we are a dumb bunch (no apologies). We always choose the worst possible option for us because we want to satisfy our immediate craving, with no consideration for tomorrow. So He has to be the adult in the equation and that hurts our flesh. True to our nature, we blame Him, cuss at Him, throw tantrums, rebel etc. and He is just trying to make our lives better (imagine).
This is where mercy comes in. He realizes that we are dust and He bears with us. He gives the Holy Spirit room to convict us to repentance and help us see our folly. Some of us hear the second time, others (me in particular) need to almost be knocked on the head. Imagine God didn’t extend mercy, being that he now lives within us can you imagine the gravity of his wrath? It will be unbearable. This is a good place to worshipfully thank Him for His goodness and mercy.
Do you see now that as long as you have Goodness and Mercy you do not need to be afraid? It is another way of saying God is with you.
Shalom.
