Just How Deep is His Mercy?

I'm continuing through the red letter words of Jesus, slowly but surely. Yesterday, something fell together that reminded me exactly how much God loves each and every one of us. It also spoke to the depth of His Mercy for all.

In Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus tells us that we should "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Why? "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." But in case that isn't reason enough, Jesus gives us the example of how far His Father will go to care for (aka love) His enemies. "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

Did you notice that it's His sun? Or had you ever considered that He is the one who sends the rain? He doesn't have to share His sun. And He doesn't have to give us rain. Don't believe me? James 5:17 reminds us that there was a man, just like us, who prayed for God to shut up the heavens because of the wickedness of a generation...and God granted Elijah's prayer for three and a half years! One dry year in some parts of Africa creates a famine. Can you imagine what the famine of Elijah's day was like?

He prayed again and God sent rain to everyone. (The full story begins at 1 Kings 17) These weren't spotty showers only on the repentant ones. God, in His unlimited depth of mercy, sent rain to all. There is so much contained in these verses that I could ramble at great length. It's taken me two days to get this far. I've had much difficulty thinking how I should conclude this post. 95% of the time, my writing just pours out. It's very rare that after two days I still have no direction, summary, outline or conclusion.

I think the point is, that it (His mercy) never ends. I'm not sure that it can be "summed up".

Have you ever doubted that God would forgive what you have done? Do you sometimes feel like you have gone so far from Him that He would never take you back?

Did the sun come up today? Then His mercy continues on and He's ready to wash away the grit and grime too. Whether you ask for it or not, the rain is coming! You can choose to remain blind to the One who shares these gifts with you or you can open up your heart to the cleansing promise of another day to (with His help) get it right.