God's mercy surely isn't ours. Or even something we can put in human terms. A year ago yesterday, a bunch of miners died.I would have saved all the miners that night, not just one.
But maybe saving our physical being isn't His goal. In fact, I am sure it isn't. I had a very bad spiral fracture of my femur a few years ago and during that time God used my discomfort to good effect. I had to work through some very personal things that revealed His interest in my character far more than His interest in my comfort.
His mercy is not arbitrary. His purposes are known to Him and sometimes I get a glimpse of one of them. Even a glimpse is dazzling as His glory is revealed!
For my part, I must recognize His ultimate authority. If He would only exercise His mercy in regard to my sin and in response to my confession, then any other display is a bonus. I cannot expect Him to do more - though many times He is pleased to do so.
Today I will rest in His precisely appropriate use of His mercy. All day long I will rest.

Mercy is when someone has every right to punish us for something we did and chooses not to. Not only doesn't punish, but also doesn't hold that fact over our heads.
God's mercy does seem to be clearly connected to our recognition of our need of it, and our open willingness to express that need to Him.
This Romans 12 Club idea about transformation through renewal must incorporate that understanding every day all day long
I am in clear need of God's gracious mercy.
Only He can meet that need.
I ask Him for His mercy with no excuses, no self-justification.
He provides because of the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, who loves me.
May I wrap myself in the joy of this thought throughout this day.

The steadfast love of the Lord never faileth,
His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning, new every morning,
Great is Thy faithfulness, Oh Lord,
Great is Thy faithfulness.
His mercies never come to an end. What a promise from His Word!
They are new every morning - they are new this morning. Think about that as many times as you can today -
His mercies never come to an end -
They are new every morning
Someone who responded shared this testimony:
For me, God's mercy has such profound meaning. When I reflect on my life, I am overwhelmed with how God "hung in there" never giving up on me. I always had a longing in my heart and truly believed after an early vision as a child that He was real and always there. But it took 50 years of sin and His unwavering merciful persistence for me to submit my life in trust to Him. Had I only known the inner peace I would find!! It continues to fill me with awe when I know that each day is a new beginning full of hope with Him because of His mercy. An awesome way to start the New Year.

"The first month will be the most difficult. Or the best. When the subject is sacrifice, the audience is small, the attention span is short. I'm not sure it is a good thing to like this subject - for healthy people, sacrifice should not be embraced. Rather, it should be respectfully, reflectively, realistically considered.So I choose this day to begin a journey with thinking about sacrifice"

I wrote this this morning and then realized I was ahead of myself. Maybe it will be the second month that will be the hardest. The first month has to begin with contemplation of God's mercies.
"I ask you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercies . . ."
Wow, a whole month of thinking every day about God's mercies! I anticipate that this might be life changing in itself.
What comes to my mind for today is simply the fact that God knows me. He knows every weird thought in my brain. He knows the depths of my heart. He knows every detail of my past.
His mercy is overwhelming. Thank You, God.

Hi folks,
Happy New Year to you all!
This message is an invitation to be part of a new club I'm forming. It is for people who want to develop their character during 2007. There is absolutely no pressure to be part of this, in fact, it might work better as a smaller group, so feel no urgency to be part of this other than your own desire to try something that might change your life.
In my small group we recently went through Romans 12 and God led me to commit to going through the 12 concepts in this chapter over the course of a year. One concept each month to contemplate as much as I can each day for the month. I was also led to see if there were others who would like to try this.
The chapter begins with a reminder of God's mercies, a call to living sacrifice and then promises transformation through renewal of our minds. That caught me. There are yet some areas of my mind that could use some transformation.
Each day I will send a short e-mail of my thoughts regarding the concept of the month. By the end of the month, we will have spent 30 days thinking about a powerful life concept and will have experienced change. By the end of the year it will be interesting to compare how God has used His Word to fulfil His promise to renew our minds.
You can do whatever you wish with this idea, your only commitment is to think daily about the concept and find what God leads you to in the process.