Show Divine Love by Being Merciful — Wednesday, June 24

"But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them."
— Psalm 103:17-18 (NKJV)

I've always thought of mercy as something I receive — a gift I needed once, at the moment I came to Christ, and continue to need every day since. What struck me today is that mercy was never meant to stop with me.

"I will have mercy, and not sacrifice," God says. I read that and realize how easy it is to substitute the wrong thing for mercy — being right instead of kind, being correct instead of compassionate. I can offer someone a technically accurate response and still completely miss what they needed from me.

The Golden Rule keeps surfacing in my mind this week. "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." It's such a familiar verse that I sometimes stop actually applying it. But today I want to ask it specifically: is there someone right now who needs the mercy from me that I've already received from God?

This thought from Ellen White reframed mercy for me in a way I needed:

"Mercy is an attribute that the human agent may share with God. As did Christ, so one may lay hold on the divine arm and be in communication with divine power. To us has been given a service of mercy to perform for our fellow human beings. In performing this service, we are laboring together with God."

— Ellen G. White, The Signs of the Times, May 21, 1902

"Laboring together with God." I hadn't thought of mercy as labor before — as something active, ongoing, almost like a job I've been given rather than a feeling I'm waiting to have. That changes how I want to approach today. Not waiting to feel merciful toward someone, but choosing to act mercifully and trusting the feeling to follow, or not needing it to at all.

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🙏 Closing Prayer

Lord, Your mercy toward me has never run out, even on the days I least deserved it. Help me share that same mercy today — not as a feeling I wait for, but as work I choose to do alongside You. Where I'm tempted to judge, give me compassion instead. In Jesus' name, Amen.

— Kay, Abide Daily Ministry
🔗 abidedailyministry.org