Mercy

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Psalm 28:6-7
“Praise the Lord! For The Lord heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield. I trust God with all my heart. The Lord helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out into songs of thanksgiving.” 

The Lord heard my cry for mercy…

I can tell you there have been times in my life where things were going so badly I wasn’t sure that if I cried out, God could hear me. But God always hears us, and isn’t that comforting? No matter what we have done, how far we feel from God, or how quietly we may call for God, our voice is always heard. Praise the Lord for that!

The Lord is my strength and my shield…

That means that God gives us the power we need to fight whatever battles we may face. But also, when we can’t fight, God is our shield - our protector, our guardian. When we believe this, our hearts will be filled with joy! Have you ever been so filled with the spirit of the Lord that you just had to praise God? Maybe in song like the Psalms said, or maybe in prayers of thanksgiving, in celebration, or in sharing with friends what God has done in your life?

If you haven’t felt like that before, I want you to know that you still have a chance! I want you to know God loves you and is ready to extend that loving mercy towards you. Life won’t be easy once God does, but you will have an almighty, everlasting God as your strength and your shield. 

If you have given your life to God but can’t seem to find God or hear God anymore, just cry out to God. Don’t be afraid, God will hear you! Let that loving mercy extend to you, too and be filled with so much love for God that you just can’t help but praise God through the good times and the bad times, too. 

You know…This reminds me of another story in the Bible about a woman who loses one of her coins. Maybe you’ve heard this story before! It’s in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 15: 

“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Now ten silver coins was equivalent to about a day’s wages then. So this woman worked all day to get her silver coins, and she loses one in her home. Then what does she do? She lights a lamp and searches the house - that’s crazy! 

She uses oil - which would have most likely cost more than one coin - to find that single, lost coin. Then when she finds it, she calls everyone over to celebrate that she found that lost coin. It just doesn’t make senes to work so hard to find one coin or celebrate so much when you find it. 

But that is mercy. It doesn’t make sense because it isn’t something we deserve. Just like this woman, Jesus searches and calls us to Him and then celebrates when we repent and come home!

That is how much you mean to Jesus - that he would give up everything to save you. He did that for each and everyone of us knowing we wouldn’t deserve it. That is what mercy is! God’s mercy is extended to each and every one of us! 

What is even more marvelous about God’s mercy is that it isn’t just a one time deal, but it is something we experience every day! Each day God desires to hear from us, for us to pray and worship; each day we are forgiven of our sins even if we don’t deserve it. That is mercy! 

I hope you know that mercy. I hope you feel comfort knowing that in good times and bad, God is your strength and your shield. I hope you are filled with joy and thanksgiving. And I hope you find some time to burst into song today, too!
Elizabeth-Anne Lovell is an
Associate Pastor at
Generations of Grace in
Lebanon, TN

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