Accepting God’s Difficult Mercy
Lamentations 3:22–23
“Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!”
Much of the time, we as Christians recognize the extraordinary gift that we’ve received in God’s mercy, and it inspires good works of faithful service and thankful worship to God. But when we are guilty of scorning God’s mercy, we are prone to see God’s work not as mercy, but as opposition from Him. This frequently leads to discontentment and anger with God because He won’t give us our way. But God’s mercy while sometimes difficult to stomach is always good for us. Sometimes God’s mercy is parents correcting our behavior through discipline, a boss writing up our misdeed, or another church member confronting apparent sins in our lives. All of these are examples of God’s good mercy because they drive us away from sin when if left to ourselves we’d pursue it to our death. Rejoice in God’s mercies, not just the obviously good ones (like food and shelter), but the sometimes difficult ones too (like correction); it is the discipline of a loving heavenly Father guiding you to what He saved you for.
