According to the Blue Letter Bible, the word “mercy”, in the King James translation (KJV), occurs 276 times in 261 verses. God’s mercy is shown so many times in the Bible and in our own lives we often fail to see it. If you would do a concordance check of this word, you will see that God’s mercy abounds. Keep in mind too His mercy is quite evident in the Bible even when the actual word, “mercy”, is not in the passage. I could accurately begin by stating that if but for His mercy, we would all be in hell.

During the days of Noah, the world had become so corrupt God told Noah to build an Ark, because He was going to destroy every human and animal on earth, excluding those He specifically saved via the Ark. It took Noah and his sons 120 years to build the Ark, and during any part of that time, anyone could have repented and come to God, but they did not. Some will say that God was cruel to destroy so many, but how can that be when He gave mankind 120 years to repent? They watched the “gallows being built”, so to speak, but mocked their own destiny. God’s mercy is quite evident. (Genesis 6:13 and following)

Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them were warned, and then destroyed. In God’s mercy He warned them, and in His mercy, He removed His own first. (Genesis 18:20 and following)

Abraham had to send Hagar and her son Ishmael away. She and her son were ready to die of thirst in the desert, but God provided water for them, saved them from the desert’s elements, and made of Ishmael a great nation. That’s mercy. (Genesis 21:14 and following)

When Elijah prophesied to Ahab that God would hold the rain, the Lord provided water and fed Elijah at the brook of Cherith via ravens. “And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.” (1 Kings 17:4) “And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.” (1 Kings 17:6) In God’s mercy, He provided for His prophet.

On another occasion Jezebel had sent word to Elijah that she was going to kill him. He fled to Beersheba and found himself a day’s journey into the wilderness. He rested under the shade of a juniper tree (which would grow up to ten feet) and God gave him water and fed him via an angel. Again, God’s mercy is shown upon Elijah. (1Kings 19:1-7)

Another prophet, Jonah, was eventually “persuaded” by God to witness toNineveh (the Assyrians). They repented. Jonah didn’t like it, because he hated the corrupt Assyrians and knew that God was merciful and would forgive them if they repented. “And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.” (Jonah 4:2) The Assyrians were very evil and cruel people, but they repented, and God granted them mercy.

So Jonah pouted, left the city, sat on the east side (where it’s the hottest), built a crude shelter and had a pity party. God prepared a gourd for Jonah to ease his misery under the hot sun, but then also prepared a worm to destroy the gourd the next morning. Therefore, the gourd withered. The sun arose again, and Jonah complained, again. However, I believe God got the last word. “And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death. Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:9-11) Isn’t it great that God’s mercy supersedes ours?

In Luke 15:11 and following, Jesus gives the account of what we commonly call the “prodigal son.” (The word “prodigal” is not in the Bible, as also with words Trinity, Bible, and Rapture). There are three accounts of mercy shown by the Lord in this passage: (1) the elder son refers to Israel and the younger son refers to the Gentiles. God always intended for Israel to share Him with the other nations. Jesus is telling them that He will die on the cross for all who will come to Him, not just Jews, (2) the elder son refers to an elder son and the younger son simply refers to a younger son. In other words, God is waiting for any child of His who sins to come home (1 John 1:9), (3) same as number two; any person who is without God in their life can come through Jesus and be reborn (John 3:16).

The greatest example of mercy in the entire Bible is at the cross. People often talk about being “fair.” “God should be fair!” If God were “fair,” we would all be in hell (Romans 3:23; 6:23), but in His mercy He gave His Son as a redemption price for anyone who would come to Him through His Son Jesus.

Some Christians say that those of us who believe in the Rapture (because it’s promised in the Bible by the way) are escapists. We just want to escape the Tribulation. Well, guess what? I want to escape the Tribulation, and I thank the Lord Jesus Christ that as part of His Church, the bride, I shall “escape” the Tribulation. That is mercy from God, and I readily accept it. If you want to go through the Tribulation ……. You thought I was going to say, “Have at it.” No, I say you will not, because that is what Jesus tells His bride. He is coming to snatch His bride away before He pours out His wrath upon this world. Not even an “earthly” groom would pour his wrath out on his own bride, and I know for sure that Jesus will not do so. Thank God for mercy.

Last of all, out of multiplied trillions of examples, I think God shows mercy upon the Tribulation saints. Let me explain. The Church will avoid the Tribulation, but we don’t know when Jesus is coming for us. Those saved during the Tribulation will suffer the trials of that era, but they can know, to the day, when Jesus will return for them. That to me is a clear case again of God’s mercy.

The Lord says in Romans 9:15-16, “For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.” (NLT) God decides who, what, when and how He will provide mercy.

Maybe we should take an inventory of our lives and do a reality check. I sincerely feel that we often don’t recognize God’s mercy in our lives. We grumble that we don’t have a lot of money, but God knows we couldn’t handle it. That’s mercy. He keeps things from us that He knows will hurt us. That’s mercy. He allows us to fail so we can call out for Him. That’s mercy. He provides blessings we don’t deserve. That’s mercy. We deserve hell, but He provides Heaven. That’s mercy. We can’t save ourselves, so He does all the work. That’s mercy. As His children, we disobey, but He provides forgiveness. That’s mercy. We can’t hold on to our salvation, but He can and does. That’s mercy.

I’m sure there are many who are reading this article who feel they don’t deserve any mercy. The truth is you don’t. I don’t. But God provides mercy for those who ask, and even for those who do not ask. Look again at the eleven examples above. For both man and beast, God’s mercy abounds. How, you say? He provides gravity so we don’t float away. He provides air so we can breath. He provides water and food so we are nourished. Are you getting it?

Does God’s mercy negate His justice? It does not. Let us not think we can trifle with His mercy and avoid any justice He must administer because of His holiness. Right now there is mercy that can be had in His greatest work of mercy, adoption into His family by and through His Son Jesus, but one day His mercy will step aside for justice.

From the 2nd Commandment God says, “And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:6) Consider His mercy and avoid His justice.

Grant Phillips

How many of us have sat alone, pondering over our past life, and thought “If I could just go back and do it over?” If everyone were honest with themselves, there would be none to say they haven’t, simply because none of us is perfect. Even the best of us would wish we could do something over. Some even have nothing more than a total mess to look back on.

The Apostle Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on (emphasis mine) toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14 NIV)

Regrettably, far too many of us waste our future, by dwelling too much in the present on the past. To the extreme, we may be angry with ourselves, get depressed, turn to a bad habit (or worsen an existing one), mope around, and feel sorry for ourselves because we made bad decisions in the past. There are a few things we need to keep in mind if and when this strikes us.

Nothing is going to change the past. It is what it is, and will always be.

I don’t know anyone who has ever been able to change their past. Do you? So why dwell on it? We have a choice to make right now, just like we did in the past, but now we can make the right choice. On the other hand, we can choose to sit around thinking, “why did I do that, why did I go there, how could I have been so stupid, I’ve ruined my life, there’s no future for me, what if” and on and on and on. When we’ve finished kicking ourselves, the past is still the past, and nothing is changed, except we just feel worse than we did before.

The regret we may have of the past was caused by bad decisions back then.

I’m sure you have thought about all the different directions your life has gone because of decisions that were made at certain times. I have. Some decisions we’ve made have been good ones and some have been terrible. We can start right now though by making better decisions. Any time a decision is to be made, particularly one that will affect the rest of our life, we should pause and remember, (1) don’t be hasty and (2) contemplate how we will feel about that decision tomorrow.

Fretting over the past wastes time.

What does fretting over the past actually accomplish? I’ll give you a clue. If it were assigned a number, it would be less than the number one. It accomplishesnothing. The wasted time that is spent “crying over spilled milk” could have been time spent making better decisions for the future. Let me give you an example: You’re driving on the interstate and make the wrong turn. Instead of taking the next exit and correcting your mistake, you just keep driving on mile after mile, kicking yourself because you made a wrong turn. Hundreds of miles later, you’re still upset over the wrong turn you made, but you still haven’t done anything to get turned around toward the right direction. You’re wasting time and getting further and further off course.

Tomorrow today will be in the past, so make good decisions today.

We are, right now, living our past. Each day should be lived with the attitude that what we do today determines our past for tomorrow. If we “flub up” today, tomorrow we will be spending our time, again, thinking about the past mistakes of today. If we make good decisions today, we will be clear thinking and active tomorrow in the good decisions we made today.

Forget the past.

What is the best thing we can do with our past? We can learn from it. Few people do so, but those who are wise definitely learn from their past. They learn to not make the same bad mistakes, and improve on the good ones. Once it has accomplished its purpose of our learning from it, then, forget it, and move on. Don’t let it be an albatross around your neck.

The past cannot be changed, but Jesus Christ can change the future.

We cannot change our past, but if we are a child of God, Jesus Christ can change our future.

One of the most miraculous occurrences of salvation is the change that takes place in a person’s life once Jesus resides in our hearts by His most Holy Spirit. Our past does not matter to Jesus. What does matter is our “present.” What are we going to do with the “now?” Our physical circumstances may not always change, simply because that isn’t important. The important thing is our relationship with Jesus Christ or lack thereof.

Even with one who is already a Christian, Jesus can fix it if you just let Him have your problems, maybe not in the way we want, but in a better way of His choosing. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NIV) Do you love Him? Are you one of His? God the Father wants His children to come to Him with their problems, just as we would want our earthly children to come to us. Here’s the difference though. We can’t always make things better for our children, but God can for us.

Jesus takes us just the way we are, warts and all.

Are we still thinking about those past failures, not quite convinced? I’m sure there are many who, even as a Christian, are so disappointed in themselves, they just can’t let go.

For the unbeliever, if you want Jesus to save your soul and make you His, He cares about one thing. Will you put your trust in Him? If so, He wants you to follow Him, and He will take care of everything else. He accepts you completely, just the way you are, warts and all.

For the believer, He wants you to let Him take care of you. Children often want to “help,” but don’t have the maturity or knowledge to do so. As children of God, we are the same. We too often think we can handle what comes our way, but God knows better. He knows we will be kicking ourselves later over the bad decisions we will make by excluding Him.

Freedom is found in Christ Jesus.

As long as we dwell over our past mistakes, we are a slave to each one. We will never be free. We will never accomplish what God wants in our lives. We will never know true happiness and peace. But once we turn the past over to Him, and follow His guidance each day forward, our future will be bright. We will know true happiness and peace, even if the world is falling down around our ears. Why would that be? The answer to that is, God knows what is best for us and will never make any wrong decisions.

What if?

What if I just decide; I’m getting nowhere worrying about the past, and I’ll never be at peace until I let it go. “Therefore, Lord, I finally realize that you love me just the way I am, and only you can take a broken life and make it brand new. Only you can provide the right direction. From this day on, I may trip and fall occasionally, but I’ll immediately reach out for Your hand and get back up and follow You.”

Making the right decisions comes from asking for God’s guidance.

The most important thing we can do in this area as Christians is to ask for God’s guidance … first. How often do we do this? Do we ask Him about a decision that needs to be made, or do we tell Him what we are going to do and ask for His blessing? There is a difference you know. Probably far too often, we want His blessing, but not His advice. Who is wiser, God or us? Doesn’t it make since to follow the one who will make the right choices? Then we won’t be mumbling under our breath, “If I could just go back and start over.”

There are no “rewind” or “delete” buttons in our life. The life we live, minute by minute, remains with us. It cannot be changed. However, if we messed it up, it can be forgiven and forgotten by God. “Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!” (Micah 7:19 NLT), “And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the LORD.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the LORD. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” (Jeremiah 31:34 NLT), “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” (Hebrews 8:12 NLT), “Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” (Hebrews 10:17 NLT)

How many Christians miss out on blessings because they will not wait upon the Lord? “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31) Every bad decision we make is due to our not waiting on His instructions or either not following the instructions He has already provided. So we make a mess out of things and then brood about it. What was it Paul said in our introductory verse? “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on (emphasis mine) toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Let us vow to leave the past in the past, and strive to be in His will today. By doing so, tomorrow will take care of itself.

Grant Phillips