"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4: 16

Because of the journey Jesus endured on this earth, He is able to sympathize with our weakness - because of His temptation, not because of His performance. He knows how I feel. He knows what I am going through. He understands my need of mercy, my lack of mercy and my desire to be a person of mercy.

Not only does He know what it feels like to be tempted like I am, He knows what it feels like to win over temptation, to follow God perfectly, to be a successful human. In His perfection, He is able to show me mercy in my weakness. Only His perfection and His sovereignty give Him the opportunity to deliver judgment or mercy.

Because of all this, I am told to approach the throne of God with confidence in His desire to meet my desire. As my desire seeks Him, His desire is to show me mercy. What hope that gives me as I look ahead!

Almost missed this one. My report for my boss due this morning was cooking along nicely last night until I accidentally hit the "X" and deleted 3 hours of work. Could have used some mercy about then.

Hebrews 2 says that Jesus "had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people."

It is simply overwhelming to think that God needed Jesus to come, be made like us in every way, become our High Priest, and offer Himself up as the ultimate sacrifice. All of this for one purpose - to show mercy to sinful mankind and make us at one with Himself again.

I will take some time today to contemplate how much He gave up in splendor and ability to identify with me and my weaknesses. What love to offer, what grace to give, what kindness! Only a creator would have that depth of sacrificial love. As a parent I can get a glimpse of what that must be like. But I can only wonder at what it meant to God.

"... I was shown mercy because ..." I Timothy 1: 13

This is the line that was in my concordance. I got all excited when I saw this because I thought - here is a way to get mercy. I wanted to know what Paul says about why he was shown mercy.

So I turned to the verse and read, "Even though I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief."

I think even I could accomplish that! Ignorance and unbelief - the recipe for mercy. I look back on my 53 years and realize how often I have cooked with that recipe. The stories I could tell of the stupid things and damage done would only make the hearer amazed at the mercy of Jesus.

Verse 16 says, "But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and have eternal life."

My part: to believe on Him - I can and will do that.

Verse 17 responds with the only thing you can say in the face of that display of mercy: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." Matt 5: 7

Well, I certainly want to be shown mercy. God wants to show me mercy. And He wants me to show mercy. So I can only believe that He will partner with me in this phase of my development.

I also believe it is necessary for me to understand this partnership. Without this understanding, I am left to depend on my past performance in trying to change. Not a pretty sight. With this understanding, I have confidence in His ability to transform my nature.

My greatest weakness in this area is awareness and discipline over my words. Sometimes it seems so easy to take advantage of the power of words to do damage, to engender guilt, to leave others with an uneasy sense of their own inadequacy. In my family it has become an art form nearly second nature in its delivery.

Mercy is awareness of the opportunity to put another down and passing it by with grace and kindness. My goal, my direction, my future.

There is a sweet release in extending mercy. Not done in a way that elevates myself, but simply done. The harder to extend, the sweeter the result.

I'm not sure if forgiveness always forgets, but if it does, mercy is what allows it to.

There is a power in holding someone's wrongdoing at the edge of our memory so we can resurrect the old pain when we want to hurt all over again. For some of us, there is a certain perverse satisfaction to having that pain. It gives us reason to act as we were going to anyway.

An old pastor of mine said, "If you're going to do something anyway, any excuse will do." Mercy allows those old hurts to disappear from the list of excuses.

Mercy is an act of the will. To be able to hold a power over someone to punish them only leads to mercy if we choose it. Freedom to choose, freedom to hold onto the power, freedom to let it go. Real freedom is only experienced when we make choices. I choose to let go.