All Are Recipients

"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not." (Lamentations 3:22)

All men are recipients of God's mercy. Don't think for a minute that when you repented and came back from the swine pen to the Father's house that mercy then began to operate. No, mercy had been operating all the time. So, remember that if you hadn't had the mercy of God all the time, stooping in pity withholding judgment, you'd have perished long ago. The cruel dictator is a recipient of the mercy of God. The wicked murderer a recipient of the mercy of God.  And the blackest heart that lies in the lowest wallow in the country is a recipient of the mercy of God.

All men are recipients of the mercy of God, but God has postponed the execution, that is all. When the justice of God confronts human guilt then there is a sentence of death, but the mercy of God - because that also is an attribute of God, not contradicting the other but working with it - postpones the execution.

Mercy cannot cancel judgment apart from atonement. When justice sees iniquity, there must be judgment. But mercy brought Christ to the Cross. I don't claim to understand that. I'm so happy about the things I do know and so delightedly happy about things I don't know.

Lord, when I realize how much we deserve Your judgment, I am once again in awe of Your great mercy. Thank You for the message of the Cross. Amen

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The Sweetest String of Our Harp

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead to sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved). (Ephesians 2:4-5)

When through the blood of the everlasting covenant we children of the shadows reach at last our home in the light, we shall have a thousand strings to our harps, but the sweetest may well be the one tuned to sound forth most perfectly the mercy of God.

For what right will we have to be there? Did we not by our sins take part in that unholy rebellion which rashly sought to dethrone the glorious King of creation? And did we not in times past walk according to the course of this world, according to the evil prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience? And did we not all at once live in the lusts of our flesh? And were we not by nature the children of wrath, even as others? But we who were one time enemies and alienated in our minds through wicked works shall then see God face-to-face and His name shall be in our foreheads. We who earned banishment shall enjoy communion; we who deserve the pains of hell shall know the bliss of heaven. And all through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us.

Lord, let me begin even now to sing of Your great mercy. My voice may be poor and my earthly instrument rusty, but my heart is full. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~