Name an attribute of God and I seriously doubt mercy will be first one out of someone’s mouth. Omniscient. Omnipresent. Omnipotent. Loving. Majestic. We might eventually come out with mercy but I’m willing to wager (and I’m not a betting man) that mercy will not be first.
Reading the headlines or listening to them can be a downward spiral into despair. A few weeks we had the TV on the local news station (Indy) and story after story seemed to be negative. Jo finally said, “It seems like all they talk about is the bad. I get so tired of it.” She is not alone.
Top that off with the natural disasters which plague our planet. Hurricanes. Tsunamis. Earthquakes. Forest fires. Droughts. Persecution. Terrorist bombings. It is like a first class ticket to the land of despair.
So people ask, “Where is God in all of this?” “Why didn’t He stop this before it happened?” Been there? I have. But those accusations are calling into question God’s mercy. Doesn’t He care? The answer is Yes He does. Mercy tells us He does.
My sermon Sunday is from 2 Corinthians 4:1 where it talks about mercy. I’ll also bring into the discussion the passage found in I Timothy 1:12-16. I’ll talk more in my next post about mercy. In the meantime, consider this thought:
We are not meant to control our Christianity; Christianity is meant to control us.
Your prayers would be appreciated for Sunday morning. It is going to be a long weekend with a busy day off (did I say day off?), a really busy Saturday, and preparing for the sermon. Thanks for praying.
I love the thought you shared here, Bill, about Christianity – so true! Yes, I’ll be praying for you, brother.
Blessings!
Praying as requested.
“Where is God in all of this?” When things go wrong in the world, terribly wrong, God is not hiding behind the sofa crying, “Woe woe it’s not going to plan!” God is still in charge He is still in control. He allows things to happen, to go wrong, because they fit in with His will for us; not because He does not care.
God bless.
I’m of the opinion, and yes it is only opinion because it can’t be proven or even studied. God allows things to happen. I think it is the natural churn resulting from the initial and ongoing rebellion. I believe the weather happens because of the wickedness of people, perhaps not the wickedness of the people today, but definitely during the time of Noah. I tend to have a mind that thinks of the here and now… but sometimes I try to remind myself of the eternal implications. In that is where I see God’s Mercy.
Since we don’t have the mind of God, it’s difficult to know how a bad circumstance can be used to bring about His perfect will in another way.
We get caught up in this flesh and measure our lives physically. If this life, each of our lives, is but a mere blink compared to eternity, how do we measure less than a blink?
Praying for you.