WFC Daily Devotional for May 27, 2009
Westside Family Church Series “What if the Church?”
This week’s theme: “Love Mercy”
Today’s theme: “Treasure His Mercy”
Meditation
As we consider the topic of mercy, let’s remember God’s merciful patience.
1. Rom 2:4 Don’t you realize how patient he is being with you: Or don’t you care? Can’t you see that he has been waiting all this time without punishing you, to give you time to turn from your sin? His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.
2. Rom 2:4 Are you, perhaps, misinterpreting God’s generosity and patient mercy towards you as weakness on his part? Don’t you realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
3. 2 Pet 3:15 Think of the Lord’s patience as your opportunity to be saved.
We cannot, however, think that God’s patience and mercy is unbounded. God will respond to persistent sin.
1. Rom 2:5 Or are you by your obstinate refusal to repent simply storing up for yourself an experience of the wrath of God in the day of his anger when he shows his hand in righteous judgment?
2. Rom 2:5 Your stubborn refusal to repent is only adding to the anger God will have toward you on that day of anger when his just judgments will be made known.
3. Rom 1:32 They know what God’s verdict is: that those who behave like this deserve to die–and yet they do it; and what is worse, encourage others to do the same.
4. Gal 6:7 Don’t be under any illusion: you cannot make a fool of God! A man’s harvest in life will depend entirely on what he sows.
5. Rom 11:22 You must try to appreciate both the kindness and the strict justice of God. Those who fell experienced the justice, while you are experiencing his kindness, and will continue to do so as long as you do not abuse that kindness…
As one author wrote, “Grace is unlimited and forever. Mercy is vast but limited, and will end in either: 1) Repentance leading to salvation by grace, or 2) stored-up wrath and eternal punishment. In the meantime, God is calling us out of mercy and into obedience. Eventually it dawns on all of us that we cannot “get away with” unrepentant sin. It’s as if God gradually withdraws his mercy after we have come to a knowledge of the truth. God’s mercy has served its purpose, now it is time for obedience.”
Question to Consider
What is my attitude about God’s mercy? Am I abusing it? Do I treasure His mercy?
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