Category: Rich in Mercy

Let’s proclaim aloud the following Psalm:

Psalm 103:1-12 (NIV)
¹ Praise the LORD, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the LORD, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
 
⁶ The LORD works righteousness
    and justice for all the oppressed.
⁷ He made known his ways to Moses,
    his deeds to the people of Israel:
⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Prayer: Father, I praise you with all my inmost being. I praise you because “everyday of my life I see your mercy and grace.” (Elijah Oyelade) I proclaim your ways – you are compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. You are merciful, God, and you do not treat me as my sins deserve. Lord, I worship you! In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s praise God as we sing “Everyday” by Elijah Oyelade (click here).

-KW

 

Psalm 51:1-2 (NRSVUE)
¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy,
    blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin.

 “Who among us does not know the need to go to Psalm 51 and make it ours?…David pleads for God to have mercy on him. Is this an empty, hopeless plea? By no means. Look at the next words: ‘according to your steadfast love.’ David is asking for God to be who he is. He is asking God to act in a way that is consistent with himself. David knows he is a God of ‘abundant mercy’ so he asks for mercy accordingly. Is this who you know God to be? ” (Dane Ortlund, In The Lord I Take Refuge)

We sing in an Agapé song, “Your Spirit brings security to a broken heart’s confession…It was you I saw in mercy”. As the Spirit and the Word testify to our hearts, let us be assured, secured in God’s steadfast love and abundant mercy. As we see him in mercy and know him to be God of mercy, let us boldly confess and ask “Have mercy on me, O God… wash me…blot out my transgressions.”

Prayer: Father, I come according to who you are today. According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, have mercy on me! Blot out my transgressions and wash me thoroughly from my sin. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s sing “How He Loves” by John Mark McMillan (click here).

-KW

Ephesians 1:7-8 (NLT)
⁷ He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. ⁸ He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

Ephesians 2:1, 4-5 (NIV)
¹ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,…⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-

“He loves us…with an ‘invincible’ love…Great love fills his heart; rich mercy flows out of his heart….That God is rich in mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which divine mercy passes but homes in which divine mercy abides. It means the things about you that make you cringe most, make him hug hardest. It means his mercy is not calculating and cautious, like ours. It is unrestrained, flood-like, sweeping, magnanimous. It means our haunting shame is not a problem for him, but the very thing he loves most to work with. It means our sins do not cause his love to take a hit. Our sins cause his love to surge forward all the more.” (Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly, 174, 179-180)

Prayer: Father, thank you, thank you, thank you! What else can we say? We praise you for your kindness and grace, your invincible love that is not turned off by our sin and shame, but instead increases all the more and draws close to embrace us! In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s sing “Pursue Me” by Worship Central (click here).

-KW

Titus 2:11, 13b-14a (NIV)
¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people…Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us…

Luke 5:12-13 (NIV)
¹² …a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” ¹³ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”

“Perhaps the notion of heavenly mercy seems abstract; but what if that mercy became something we could see, hear, and touch? This is what happened in the incarnation…when we look at the ministry of Christ in the four Gospels, we are seeing what ‘rich in mercy’ looks like…Perhaps, looking at the evidence of your own life, you do not know what to conclude except that this mercy of God in Christ has passed you up…To you I say, the evidence of Christ’s mercy toward you is not your life. The evidence of his mercy toward you is his – mistreated, misunderstood, betrayed, abandoned…In your place. If God sent his own Son to walk through the valley of condemnation, rejection, and hell, you can trust him as you walk through your own valleys…” (Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly, 177-179)

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for reaching out to me in love and mercy. I bring to you (my area of need) and I receive your willing touch. Take me deeper in trusting your mercy as I walk through difficulties in my own life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s receive the merciful embrace of Jesus today as we sing “Son of Suffering/Mercy” by Matt Redman (click here).

-KW