Day 42: The Boomerang Blessing: God's Mercy And Grace
Read: Matthew 5:1 - 12 (specifically verse 7), Isaiah 55:10 - 11
Let’s just lay it down square this morning. It should come as no
surprise to anyone when I declare before you that sometimes living this
thing we call life can be tough. Some day's our lives feel like a
large weight of brick sitting square on our shoulders. In this season
that we are compelled to live in most of us are performing a mental
juggling act. There is the mortgage or rent, our work, the kids, the
spouse. We have pressures physically, emotionally and financially. Some
days are filled with all kinds of difficult decisions that we must make when we would prefer to procrastinate. Days in which life shows no mercy gives no quarter. So, God, is this really Your better way?
Maybe you have noticed, in reading through the beatitudes, that they
fall into two very distinct categories? The first 4 deal with our
relationship to God. We are "poor in spirit," admitting our need for
Him. We "mourn," we see our life in light of what Jesus sacrificed for
us. Then we surrender to God’s control. We must try to empty ourselves
of self-sufficiency and exhibit Christ dependency. We are "meek." The
result of the first 3 steps? Hunger. What you hunger for is
righteousness.. You want more of His Word, of Christian influences, you
find you’re happiest when around fellow believers. You hunger and thirst
after a right relationship, and God promises you will be filled.
So, now that we have been given a better idea how to build a right
relationship with God, Jesus directs our focus to the second four - how
we can be right with one another. He begins by introducing to us the
coming of the divinely radical concept "Golden Rule of Life" or as I
have heard some call it: “The Boomerang Blessing.” He says, "You’ll be
happy many times over when you show mercy to others, because then mercy
will be shown to you." Jesus is placing great amounts of emphasis on the
point that the amount of mercy you show to others will be directly
proportionate to the amount of mercy that you will receive. God
promises: "give mercy receive mercy!"
Can this promise from God
be trusted? Will this boomerang return to us in same the manner in
which it is placed before us through Scripture "all things being held
equal in the sight of God: mercy given equals mercy received"? Consider
well these words spoken through God's Prophet Isaiah 55:10 - 11: 'For as
the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there
until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be
that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it
shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for
which I sent it.'
Today, let your prayer for God's grace and
mercy be the prayer that David unleashed on God (Psalm 6) when he needed
to experience for himself equal portions of both when he found the
circumstances of his life whirling wildly away and out of balance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RqvN-QGAAE
The Music of the Bible Revealed: Psalms 6
www.YouTube.com
Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura, LA MUSIQUE DE LA BIBLE REVELEE (Harmonia Mundi
France, 1976): the original recording that accompanied the French
Read: Matthew 5:1 - 12 (specifically verse 7), Isaiah 55:10 - 11
Let’s just lay it down square this morning. It should come as no surprise to anyone when I declare before you that sometimes living this thing we call life can be tough. Some day's our lives feel like a large weight of brick sitting square on our shoulders. In this season that we are compelled to live in most of us are performing a mental juggling act. There is the mortgage or rent, our work, the kids, the spouse. We have pressures physically, emotionally and financially. Some days are filled with all kinds of difficult decisions that we must make when we would prefer to procrastinate. Days in which life shows no mercy gives no quarter. So, God, is this really Your better way?
Maybe you have noticed, in reading through the beatitudes, that they fall into two very distinct categories? The first 4 deal with our relationship to God. We are "poor in spirit," admitting our need for Him. We "mourn," we see our life in light of what Jesus sacrificed for us. Then we surrender to God’s control. We must try to empty ourselves of self-sufficiency and exhibit Christ dependency. We are "meek." The result of the first 3 steps? Hunger. What you hunger for is righteousness.. You want more of His Word, of Christian influences, you find you’re happiest when around fellow believers. You hunger and thirst after a right relationship, and God promises you will be filled.
So, now that we have been given a better idea how to build a right relationship with God, Jesus directs our focus to the second four - how we can be right with one another. He begins by introducing to us the coming of the divinely radical concept "Golden Rule of Life" or as I have heard some call it: “The Boomerang Blessing.” He says, "You’ll be happy many times over when you show mercy to others, because then mercy will be shown to you." Jesus is placing great amounts of emphasis on the point that the amount of mercy you show to others will be directly proportionate to the amount of mercy that you will receive. God promises: "give mercy receive mercy!"
Can this promise from God be trusted? Will this boomerang return to us in same the manner in which it is placed before us through Scripture "all things being held equal in the sight of God: mercy given equals mercy received"? Consider well these words spoken through God's Prophet Isaiah 55:10 - 11: 'For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.'
Today, let your prayer for God's grace and mercy be the prayer that David unleashed on God (Psalm 6) when he needed to experience for himself equal portions of both when he found the circumstances of his life whirling wildly away and out of balance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RqvN-QGAAE
The Music of the Bible Revealed: Psalms 6
www.YouTube.com
Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura, LA MUSIQUE DE LA BIBLE REVELEE (Harmonia Mundi France, 1976): the original recording that accompanied the French
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