SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/10/2020
8:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Practice of Mercy”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:7
Message of the
verse: “"Happy
are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them!”
I mentioned in our last SD that we
would be looking at four ways that mercy is looked at spiritually.
1.
Mercy is shown through pity. A quote
from Augustine: “If I weep for the body
from which the soul is departed, should I not weep for the soul from which God
is departed?” As a sensitive believer we
are to grieve more for lost souls than for lost bodies. The reason for this is because we have
experienced God’s mercy, we are to have great concern for those who have not
received God’s mercy.
2.
We are to show spiritual mercy by confrontation. Paul writes
to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:25 the following “with
gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant
them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.” When witnessing to someone we as believers
must be willing to confront them about their sin so that they might come to God
in salvation. Paul wrote to Titus about
certain teachers “who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole
families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid
gain” (Titus 1:11). Paul then tells
Titus in verse to 13b “reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the
faith.” MacArthur writes “Love and mercy
will be severe when that is necessary for the sake of an erring brother and for
the sake of Christ’s church. In such
cases it is cruel to say nothing and let the harm continue.”We continue
this third way that mercy is looked at spiritually from something that Jude
closed his letter with the encouragement to “21 keep
yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal
life. 22 And have
mercy on some, who
are doubting; 23 save others, snatching them
out of the fire; and on
some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh”
(Jude 21-23).
3.
We are to show spiritual mercy by praying. I am sure
that many believing Christians have a place on their prayer list where they are
praying for those who do not know the Lord, people that are in your family, and
people that the Lord has laid upon your heart to pray for them to come to know
the Lord for salvation. In doing this we
are giving the sacrifice of prayer for those who are without God and this is
mercy on our part. MacArthur adds “Only
mercy can be measured by our prayer for the unsaved and for Christians who are
walking in disobedience.”
4.
“We are to show spiritual mercy by proclaiming
the saving gospel of Jesus Christ—the most
merciful thing we can do.”
5/10/2020 9:22 AM
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