In light of this week’s Midweek Devotion, our Family Devotion will be about mercy this week. In our Midweek Devotion, we read about how the Lord would want us to conduct ourselves with others, even with those who have offended us (Romans 12:9-19). Part of this passage from Romans says: “Try to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone.” Simply put, as believers, we are called to be peacemakers. Two main ingredients of peacemakers are: forgiveness and mercy. Remember, the biblical word for peace in scripture is shalom. Shalom means “to flourish”. That being said, to be a biblical peacemaker means we are seeking to facilitate an atmosphere that allows relationships and situations in our lives to flourish. We are seeking to facilitate an atmosphere that allows others to grow and develop in a healthy and vigorous way due to the environment we create around them.
DISCUSS
Read Matthew 5:9 and James 3:13-18.
Who is someone in your life that has demonstrated qualities of a biblical peacemaker?
Offer one way you are seeking to be a peacemaker, one who facilities an atmosphere that allows others to grow and develop in a healthy and vigorous way (this can be at your job, in your family, etc).
Jesus tells us that the justice-system of the Kingdom of God is founded upon mercy and forgiveness:
Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure — pressed down, shaken together, and running over — will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:36-38,HCSB).”
Sin makes our hearts selfish, mean toward others and, most often, critical of ourselves and others. Therefore, with that critical spirit within us, we cultivate criticism in and around our lives instead of cultivating shalom.
As we read in Luke’s gospel, however, the heart of God is merciful. Repentant believers, who receive the Holy Spirit, receive a renewed disposition, making us merciful, just as our Father in heaven is merciful. When we repent, admitting to God that our hearts are sinful and critical, He is not critical of us. Instead, He pours out His mercy upon us and forgives us. God therefore, sets the primary example for what it looks like to cultivate an atmosphere of peace by first allowing us the opportunity to experience that freedom to flourish within His presence. As we experience that wonderful peace and begin to see our own lives flourish, we are meant to then pour out that same measure of mercy and peace into the lives of those around us.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, HCSB).
DISCUSS
Mercy is defined as: compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.
Give an example of a time when you personally experienced God’s mercy.
Give one instance when you have shown mercy to another person, or you saw someone else show mercy toward another person.
Based on the definition of mercy, forgiveness is then making the choice to lay down the right to condemn another. That is exactly how God is toward us. God, who holds the right to judge us as our maker, chooses to forgive repentant sinners and offers us the opportunity to know peace, flourishing within His presence.
“For You, Lord, are kind and ready to forgive, rich in faithful love to all who call on You. Lord, hear my prayer; listen to my plea for mercy” (Psalm 86:5-6, HCSB).
In the face of our offender, when we choose to show mercy, then the Holy Spirit is able to set both the offended and the offender free from the chains of condemnation. When we choose to hold onto the offense, then we remain a slave to that offense. Our anger over that offense makes our hearts grow critical and bitter.
However, when we have been offended and choose to surrender our right to condemn our offender, asking the Lord help us show mercy and to forgive them, then we are “being merciful, just as our Father in heaven is merciful.” As sinners who “plea for mercy” and are offered total forgiveness, we must then position our hearts to be “ready to forgive” others as well.
Forgiveness frees us and the person who hurt us from the offense! Experiencing that freedom let’s us see the power of God’s mercy at work in our lives, then we realize that offenses can claim no power over us any longer. Satan can no longer find a stronghold in the place of our offenses; they are flooded and washed away in God’s mercy. In Him, we realize that the power of His mercy is greater than the power of our offense. As the measure of His mercy in us expands, His glory also expands in our lives.
“For the measure you offer (judgment or mercy) will be measured back to you.” Highland, let us ask the Lord for a greater measure of mercy to be within the life of our church. This displays the heart and glory of our Lord through the life of our church and let’s us walk in the freedom of forgiveness that is ours, in Christ.
DISCUSS & PRAY
Is it hard for you, when you have hurt someone, to tell them you were wrong?
If someone has hurt us, does forgiveness feel like the right thing to do?
Have you ever seen someone under the control of anger?
What does that kind of control look like in someone’s life?
Have you ever experienced the freedom of forgiving someone? What did that freedom feel like?
Ask the Lord to help you/your family desire to be merciful, as He is merciful.
Ask the Lord to help forgiveness flow out of that mercy in your heart, which comes from His spirit.
Our series just for kids continues. The Series is called: The Bible in Four Weeks. Click the button below to see part three of this series:
We love you,
Rob & Carrie