The Tender Mercies of our God!

The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.  He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him.  For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more.  But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children's children, To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them. --Psalm 103:8-19

To My Daughters,


The tender mercy of our God.  I LOVE dwelling on that picture.  Our omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God is also KIND and TENDERHEARTED.  God's mercy proceeds from His heart of love toward us.  Our God embodies love. He embodies mercy.  He embodies gentleness.  Here is how Jesus describes Himself:

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." --Matthew 11:28-29

Our God is gentle and lowly in heart...It is in Him that we find rest for our soul.  Our God is so great, so powerful and so wonderful and yet so FULL of compassion and mercy.  The King of all Kings cares about me!   A bruised reed He will not break and a smoking flax He will not quench.  Here is the definition I found for mercy in my Thompson Chain Reference Bible:

A form of love, especially directed toward the needy or unworthy.  I love that...the needy and the unworthy...that would be us!  God's mercy is also described as eternal, everlasting, boundless, prolonging life, encouraging penitence, forgiving sin, making salvation possible and is most vividly seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

The bible says that the earth is full of His mercy.  Ask the Lord to make you aware of the multitudes of His mercies to you each and every day.  Ask Him to open your eyes to the many many blessings He sends your way.  Dwell on His mercy. DWELL IN HIS MERCY.  See His power but look with what gentle cords He draws you to Himself.  When you are feeling burdened, He will give you rest. When you are weak or afraid you have no need to fear, He will stoop down and help you.  When you are downcast or desperate or depressed...His tender mercies will revive you.  They will renew a right spirit within and minister to your heart in such a way that beauty will come from ashes.


As Jesus ministers to my heart in trials, I so want to minister the lovingkindness He has shown me to others.  I  fail miserably and often,  but it is a beautiful thing, when, by the power of His Spirit, I surrender and allow His love to rain down on those He has placed in my path.  Love and mercy are weapons...they never fail and affect not only the temporal but the eternal.  Jesus did the will of His Father in heaven.  His agenda was not His own, but His Father's.  His mind was always set on the eternal and His heart's focus was others.  He did nothing through selfish ambition or conceit and always esteemed others as better than Himself.  Look for His mercy in your life and as you do allow your heart to so overflow with His mercy and goodness that you just can't keep it to yourself.  Put off  your own selfishness, striving and sin and put on Jesus.  Walk in mercy and love and be a breath of heavenly air to those the Lord has placed in your path.



Love
Mom





For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.--John 3:16

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.--Ephesians 2:4-7


For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.--Psalm 86:5