Mercy
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 10:02AM 
Greetings Faithful Readers...
Maybe you can help me with something... I've been thinking about this for the past 3 days and I can't seem to come to a conclusion:
Why is there so little mercy and forgiveness among Christians?
I've been talking with a lot of Christ-followers lately and they have been telling me how beat-up they feel by other believers. This shouldn't be the case.
I went back through scripture and couldn't get past this verse:
35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35)
Are we loving one another? Turning the other cheek? Providing solutions rather than creating problems? Extending mercy to others in the same way Christ gave it to us? Am I doing these things?
I'm not condemning anyone...or judging Christians in general. Simply making an observation of some things I've noticed lately.
Let's pray for each other.
BV
Reader Comments (5)
Wow. I've been wondering about this, too. It seems like we're just so quick to accuse and condemn these days. It's like we've forgotten that Christ came to seek out and save the lost, and our calling as Christ-Followers - our commission, if you will - is to spread His message of love and forgiveness to a lost and hurting world. HURT people hurt other people. If we as Christians can't step in and break the cycle of hurt and pain by showing God's love and mercy, who will?
Could it be that more people are stressed out about the economy getting worse every year? For the past nine and a half years, it seems that every day either stocks are struggling, or more people are jobless. Perhaps this may cause many to focus only on their families, and no one else.
I always wonder that too so I picked up 2 books, both by Timothy Keller. One is the Reason for God which I am reading now and the other was the Prodigal God. I think they both give a little insight as to why we beat-up each other even as Christians. Good reads!
The same thing is happening to me with my neighbors, they are constantly getting mad at people for no reason at all and stop talking to each other,and they say they are chirstians, I just don't get it. We really need to pray for these people.
This is a huge issue. "God is love."
I think we have a tough time taking Jesus' long-term view and believing that love always triumphs. We want the "right" results right now, and too frequently we take short-cuts to get them.
Mercy takes a lot of patience and faith. Thankfully, God has a lot of both!
Rich