SHOWING MERCY – PART 2

3 – The Motivation for Mercy:

A -- Because YHVH has shown me mercy:
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. -- Luke 6:36. YHVH expects me to do to others what He has already done to me. When you think about those people who really tick you off, if you are having a hard time being merciful to those people, remember what a bad person you have been with YHVH. I think of all the flack that YHVH has taken from me, all the stuff I have done my own way, done my own thing, looked at YHVH and said: [Forget it! I'm going to do this!] Yet, YHVH still loves me. What a gracious, merciful YHVH He is. I think of all the dumb things I have done wrong and yet He continues to shower me with His love and mercy and grace. I have to stop and remind myself: [YHVH, if You can be merciful to me, surely, I can be merciful to the next person.] One day some religious hypocrites brought a lady caught in the act of adultery to Yeshua where He was teaching and threw her down in front of Him. They said: [Yeshua, this lady was caught in the act of adultery and You know what the Law says; if you are caught doing adultery, you get stoned to death!] Yeshua answered: [You are right. That is the Law. The first one of you who has never broken the Law gets to throw the first stone.] And they all started walking away in silence. Another time Yeshua said: [You are so concerned by the problems in that other person's life, before you get the speck of sawdust out of your neighbour’s eyes, why don't you get the telephone pole out of your own eye?] No contest. YHVH has been merciful to me so I need to be merciful to other people. We tend to judge other people by their worse faults and we tend to judge ourselves by our best intentions. Be merciful! Why? Because YHVH has shown me mercy!

B -- Because I’m going to need more mercy in the future:
I do not expect to be perfect from now until the time that I die, therefore, I am going to need more mercy. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. -- James 2:13. Only those who give it, get it back. Those who give mercy, get mercy and those who don't give mercy, don't receive mercy back. You may say to me: [you don't know how much this person hurt me! And they continue to hurt me! I just cannot forgive them.] Then I hope you never sin, because forgiveness and mercy are a two-way street. When you refuse to forgive others and refuse to show mercy to others, don’t expect to receive any yourself. I need to be merciful, because I am going to need it again in the future. Be very careful about demanding justice, because YHVH just might give it to you. If we all got what we deserved, none of us would be here. YHVH does not give us what we deserve; He gives us what we need: And that is mercy! And mercy is giving to others, not what they deserve when they have fallen, not what they deserve when they have hurt us, but giving them what they need.

C -- Because it makes me happy:
That is what Yeshua says: Blessed are the merciful. The opposite of that is true also: [Unhappy are the unmerciful.] The most miserable people I know are people who are resentful, who refuse to give up a grudge, who are holding something over somebody else's head. They do not realize they are hurting themselves. Un-mercifulness makes you miserable. The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh. [Proverbs 11:17. Doing acts of mercy gets us out of ourselves, gets the focus off of me and on to other people and produces happiness. A tremendous way to get rid of depression is to learn to develop acts of mercy. When you are depressed and all of a sudden begin to be patient to those who are different, forgiving to those who have fallen, helping those who are hurting, doing good to your enemies, you will watch the clouds of depression lift and blow away. It gets you out of yourself and gets the focus off of you. As you give your life away, the happiness comes. You ought to be merciful, simply because it makes you happy. It is a boomerang blessing: what you give is what you get. Now let us take just a couple of moments to get practical with this:

Let us Get Practical:

How Do I Become a Merciful Person?

A -- Experience the mercy of YHVH for yourself:
You cannot offer mercy to anyone else until you have first received mercy. You cannot offer forgiveness to anybody else until first you feel forgiven. One of the reasons why some of you have a hard time forgiving other people is because you don't really feel forgiven yourself. The starting point is; I must receive the mercy of YHVH, the peace of YHVH and the forgiveness of YHVH and then I can offer it to others. You receive that mercy when you place your trust in Yeshua Moshiach as Adonai and Saviour of your life. If you have already done that and you still don’t recognize your current state of forgiveness, you need to go back and read through the New Testament again and claim the promises YHVH has given to you.

B -- Start looking at people with the eyes of Yeshua Moshiach:
Begin looking at people the way Adonai would see them. You start saying: [Adonai, help me to see that man, woman from Your point of view. How do You see that person? What are the hurts You see in their lives? What are the needs You see in their lives?] Look at them from through the eyes of Moshiach. The thing believers are going to be judged for at the judgment is how they treated other people -- for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. -- Matthew 25:35-36. YHVH is going to ask you how you treated other people. Were you merciful? Were you like Him? Yeshua had a ministry of mercy. He lifted up the lonely. He accepted the rejected. He loved the unlovely. He helped those who are helpless and the hurting. Who is it in your life that needs mercy? That is barely hanging on? And they are about to let go? You need to show some mercy this week. Who is it in your life that you are still holding the past over their head? You won't let them off the hook. Every time they do something you don't like you bring this back up for ammunition. That is a great way to kill a marriage. Who is it that you need to say a word of forgiveness to this week. Let them off the hook, wipe the slate clean and never mention it again. It is over, it is done with and it is forgiven. That's it! Be blessed! Show mercy!