The Journey of Mercy

“Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?”- Matthew‬ ‭18:33‬ ‭ When you think of “churchy” words, mercy has to be in the top 5. We probably heard some elderly woman at church or somewhere saying, “Lord, have mercy”. I think we don’t fully understand what mercy is. Mercy is compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm. To simplify it, when we forgive someone, we have mercy on them. Let me ask you this question. Is it hard to have mercy on someone? When someone that you thought could never hurt you. When someone cut you off on the road. When someone manipulates you into doing something that impacts your life. Can you have mercy on that person? Mercy is a choice. Mercy is a tough choice for all us because we, normally, want to see revenge on the people who caused us grief, pain, shame, and guilt. When we want justice, but what does God want us to do? God wants us to have mercy on the people who betrayed us in many forms. Why? Because God has mercy on ourselves every time we wake up. “Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”(Lamentations‬ ‭3:23‬) In our journey in life, in order to progress in our relationship with Christ, we must have mercy on people. We should be quick to forgive and quick to forget. God is quick to forgive us when we have or will sin in our lives. We must do the same. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”(Luke‬ ‭6:36‬)‭ It’s not going to be easy. Nothing in our journey with Christ is easy. We have to remember that our ultimate goal is not in the present time, but in the future. In order to receive the ultimate goal, we have to have mercy towards others. Mercy is a choice. When we choose mercy, we choose God.