Hosanna Restoration Church

Oh how merciful and kind the Lord is! It seems to me that this is one of the things that so many people miss when it comes to God. Not only that, but many who would claim to know Him almost seem to have an aversion to any emphasis on His kindness and mercy beyond the idea that we should feel fortunate that He has forgiven our sins and if we behave we might see heaven but we should not expect any more than that in this life time!

I know about that feeling. When I first met God I was so thankful to be forgiven that I declared He did not have to do one more thing for me. I then took on the task of somehow making up for all the years I did not know Him. I gave finances that I had failed to give even when I really did not have them. I did not expect God to be any kinder or more merciful; I was just glad to be in and wanted to stay in. I must say that during that time I was dedicated but until I realized I could not earn anything and accepted the fact that He had a lot more for me that I could imagine, I never really settled in to knowing Him for who He was.

There is a lot more to His mercy and kindness that a ticket to eternity. The truth is there is not a lot of enjoyment in standing just inside the door expecting to be bounced out at any moment. Learning that His steadfast love never ceases and that His mercy never comes to an end is where we begin to truly enjoy the blessing of the Lord.

You see, as we receive mercy we are then able to extend it. When we see God as kind we in turn become kind. Personally I am pretty merciful and kind most of the time, but for some reason I am realizing that kindness is sometimes the most difficult. Now it should not be, and the fact that I am thinking about it, tells me that there is some fine tuning coming and I look forward to it!

Recently I had the thought that Jesus felt it was more important for people to see God than it was for Him to be God and I am really looking forward to getting into that. In fact I told the Lord that this morning, but before I got it out I realized that too many people see God without the mercy and kindness and we need to be sure that they get to see the real Him.

Jesus came and revealed the mercy and kindness of God like no other and He is sending us to do the same. So we must check and see if we are enjoying the mercy and kindness of God. Do we see Him as the gently loving amazingly powerful creator of the universe who is more interested in our success than we are? Think about His mercy and how you can be merciful. Think about His kindness and how you can allow that same kindness to flow to and through you. He has been and continues to extend kindness and mercy. Lord, help me to do the same in greater and great measure.