Today's Worship: The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in James 5:11b,

 

"The Lord is full of compassion and mercy."

 

James makes this wonderful observation about the Lord. What if the Lord wasn't as James observes? What if the Lord was not full of compassion and mercy? What if he were simply critical and condemning? Where would that leave me?

 

After spending most of the space in his letter up to this point observing the shortcomings of believers I have to admit I come up short myself in many ways. I desperately need compassion and mercy from my Creator if I am to have any hope at all in this life and especially in the next!

 

The wonderful reality of God is that he is full of compassion and mercy. To be sure, he is a righteous, holy and just God who will right all of the wrongs one day. He says of himself in Jeremiah 9:24, "I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight." He is both our God of justice, and, importantly to me, our God of compassion and mercy. In Exodus 24:6-7 he tells Moses of himself, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin."

 

John makes a wonderful observation, "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:16-18. Our confident assurance that we belong to God is that we find our own hearts develop after his own heart of love.

 

I am reminded of the passage in John 3:16-17, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." How I desperately rely on the compassion and mercy of my loving God!

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com