Attributes of the Almighty: A Summer Series

You know those personality quizzes, the ones that help you understand your strengths, love languages, enneagram number or better yet, your spiritual gifts? These tests fascinate me even though sometimes the results are hard to swallow. Just recently I took a spiritual gifts assessment. I have taken them before but this test was different. Each category gave you a score. Not just your top three, an actual number ranking your gifting. Staring down at the page in front of me next to Mercy was a big fat 0. Merciless.

It's in my nature, to not extend mercy well. Can we take a moment to say, Praise God for the body of Christ! We need each other with the way God specifically gifted us to spur one another on. Praise God because of His great mercy.

GOD IS MERCIFUL

Just because I do not easily extend mercy, does not mean that I am unable to extend it at all. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. As sinful human beings, we deserved death. God who is rich in mercy sent Jesus Christ to die a brutal death on the cross for my sin. What did I deserve? Death. What do you deserve? Death What did he offer so that we did not get what we deserve ? Mercy. But Jesus didn't just extend mercy by dying on the cross. He extended it to those He came in contact with during His time here on earth.

 We extend God’s mercy through forgiveness and active compassion. 

In John 8:1-11 Jesus is seated teaching in the temple and a woman is brought in. She has just been caught in adultery and the teachers of the law are there to expose her sin and trap Jesus. Her eyes face down towards the ground, garments tangled around her, she can feel eyes staring at her in disgust. The whispers heard among the crowd as she stands in her shame. The hidden sin now exposed. Based on the Law, her punishment-death.

The religious leaders knew the law. They HELD THEIR STONES. Imagine with me, everyone has gone to bed and your scrolling on your phone looking at things you know you shouldn’t be, you’ve been stealing money, the liquor in your cup has become a problem, you’ve been unfaithful to your spouse and that sin that has been hidden is now exposed. People that you see in your church, office and at your grocery store are all staring at you snickering and whispering as you walk through your town now living  in embarrassment and shame. WE HOLD OUR STONES.

One of the main things I’m always blown away with is the fact that when I truly get to know someone, my critical spirit regarding their choices or lifestyle go away. When I take the time to get to know their heart, I find myself being reminded we all come from a place where God sees and knows our hearts and the only thing He knew to do was offer forgiveness. Mercy sees past the sin and sees a sinner. Once we see a sinner, mercy calls us to act out compassionately.

Luke 6:36 says "Be Merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

Mercy doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences to our sinful choices but rather, we recognize that because we have a merciful Heavenly Father’s  HE extended His mercy to us. Each step he took towards the cross was active compassion. It was our sin that stood before Him that day. The only guilty verdict was ours. And yet, hanging upon that cross all He could do was say “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” He Forgave

Forgiveness is easier to extend when we remember we have been forgiven.

As the woman stands before Him, He begins to write on the ground, The Bible doesn’t tell us what He wrote but it does tell us  He didn’t embarrass her.He didn’t use His Words to hurt her but rather He states“Let any of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.” One by one they begin to drop their stones and leave All that is left is her and Jesus.

With Mercy standing before her, He doesn't just forgive her, He calls her to leave her life of sin.

It was in studying this week that I started to realize I do a really good job holding stones. And while no, I’ve never actually thrown a stone to harm someone, I have thrown stones with the words I’ve used. When someone’s choices don’t measure up to what I would do, I throw stones. When someone is living a life of sin and not being honest with me about their choices, I throw stones. When someone clearly does not deserve mercy and someone extends it, I throw stones and I wonder where in your life are you throwing stones? 

Where have the words that you used about someone this week based on your judgement of their life and choices caused you to extend anything other than mercy. Where in your life do you need to drop your stones and extend active compassion in the way we speak to or about somebody.

Just as the woman stood alone in the presence of Jesus, take some time alone in the presence of Jesus and ask Him to reveal where in your life you need to extend mercy through forgiveness and active compassion and drop your stones. We were never meant to carry them anyways.