God Is Rich In Mercy | Meditation 3
Welcome to week three of Meditations. In this series, we take a short passage from Gentle & Lowly (a great, short, book you should buy*) and offer a meditative prompt for you at the end. (See our past meditations here)
It is one thing to describe what your husband says and does and looks like. It is something else, something deeper and more real, to describe his heart for you. So with Christ. It is one thing to know the doctrines of the incarnation and the atonement and a hundred other vital doctrines. It is another, more searching matter to know his heart for you. - Dane Ortlund
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us… Ephesians 2
Perhaps, looking at the evidence of your life, you do not know what to conclude except that this mercy of God in Christ has passed you up. Maybe you have been deeply mistreated. Misunderstood. Betrayed by the one person you should have been able to trust. Abandoned. Taken advantage of. Perhaps you carry a pain that will never heal till you are dead. If my life is any evidence of the mercy of God in Christ, you might think, I’m not impressed.
To you I say, the evidence of Christ’s mercy toward you is not your life. The evidence of his mercy toward you is his - mistreated, misunderstood, betrayed, abandoned. Eternally. In your place.
If God sent his own Son to walk through the valley of condemnation, rejection, and hell, you can trust him as you walk through your own valleys on your way to heaven.
Perhaps you have difficulty receiving the rich mercy of God in Christ not because of what others have done to you but because of what you’ve done to torpedo your life, maybe through one big, stupid decision or maybe through ten thousand little ones. You have squandered his mercy, and you know it.
To you I say, do you know what Jesus does with those who squander his mercy? He pours out more mercy. God is rich in mercy. That’s the whole point.
That God is rich in mercy means your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which divine mercy passes but homes in which divine mercy abides. It means the things about you that make you cringe most, make him hug hardest. It means his mercy is not calculating and cautious, like ours. It is unrestrained, flood-like, sweeping, magnanimous. It means our haunting shame is not a problem for him, but the very thing he loves most to work with.
It means on that day when we stand before him, quietly, unhurriedly, we will weep with relief, shocked at how impoverished a view of his mercy-rich heart we had. (179)
Reflective Prompt
Do you often think God is unaware, or simply forgetting the sinful/wicked parts of you that you feel guilt and shame over? It could be sins of the past or present struggles. Do you hold an unbalanced view that for God to pour mercy out on you means he never talks about those parts of you? Or do you see that the deepest part of His mercy is that He does see those parts of you that you are so quick to cover?
What does it mean for your shame and regret, that: “our regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which divine mercy passes but homes in which divine mercy abides.”
What does God’s mercy for your deepest sins, shames, guilts, and regrets look like?
Thankful that God sees all of me, and trusting His mercy to challenge me to grow more holy,
Josh.
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