What Will We Do With Mercy

By: Steve Huston

In not speaking of any particular candidate, but rather of one party’s promise to unleash a tsunami of ultra-progressivism and an unbiblical agenda that would further divide and further push our nation to the brink of destruction, we saw the blatant face of evil rear its ugly head. Conservatives responded: 1. Work vigorously on election integrity. 2. Make it “too big to rig.” 3. Many Christians not only hit the polls but “hit the floor with their knees” as well, crying for God to have mercy on an undeserving nation once again.

In response to the first two conservative actions: George Barna shows voters as: 72% professing Christians (56% of them voted for Trump); 60% professed non-Christians voted for Harris.

I want to mainly draw your attention to that third and conservative Christian response. There were churches and ministries (like ADA) across our nation who called upon God’s people to gather and intercede with our Heavenly Father on behalf of the United States. How could we do anything else; there is truly nowhere else to turn. Charles Spurgeon was correct: “Prayer is the forerunner of mercy! Turn to sacred history, and you will find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come to this world unheralded by supplication. When you had great deliverances out of sore troubles, and mighty helps in great dangers, you have been able to say, ‘I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears!’ Prayer is ALWAYS the preface to blessing.”

The question is: What will we do with this mercy shown to us? Will we see it simply as a “reprieve” – to delay punishment or to give temporary relief? Or will we recognize it as a “mercy” – compassionate treatment or a disposition to be kind and forgiving? While both come from the hand of God, if we do our duty, a national reprieve can become extended by God’s compassionate mercy upon us. To “do our duty” sounds a little strange in this context; let’s see what God has to say about His mercy.

Psalm 103:17 assures us that “the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting,” but His mercy is conditional; it’s for a specific people. Who are those people? The rest of verse 17 and verse 18 describes who the recipients of such wonderful and everlasting mercy are: “upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.”

We certainly have much to praise and thank God for, but we must not forget His mighty hand or His mercies or His rightful requirements over our lives. He is holy and expects His people to be holy. He has commanded a way in which we must live; it was given to us not as a fence to keep us from “good” things, but as a guardrail to keep us from self-destruction. It’s a way that brings full joy as opposed to mere temporal happiness from our happenstance.

If we forget the mercy God has shown us and we become apathetic in our responses to Him, then be warned, mercy abused has dire consequences. It will very likely lead to Psalm 106:15. “And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” God tries the reins of a nation’s heart – He tries OUR reins – and gives it their desire. Look at the preceding verses with a sober-mind and humility of heart. Verses 11-12 tell of Israel’s complete salvation from the enemy. So, they believed God’s words and sang His praise. BUT verses 13-14 tell the story of mercy abused: They soon forgot God’s merciful work, they didn’t look for His direction, and they lusted after the things of this world instead of chasing after God as their treasure. In response to their actions, God gave them their desire, BUT HE SENT leanness into their soul.

These are not words of warning I wanted to write, but they are truths we need to hear. We prayed for mercy and grace; God spared us from what we can only imagine. What will we do from here? Let us take great care to press on and into the words of Jeremiah in Lamentations 3:40. “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.” That is the way to continued mercy.

 

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