Tender Mercies
A compilation
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Here is my prayer for you: May you catch even the slightest glimpse of the tender mercy of our Lord Jesus. For one drop of the Lord’s mercy is better than an ocean of the world’s comfort. …
If only we knew how deeply Jesus understands and cares for us. If only we could see the wonder of His love. The skies He paints, the flowers He blooms, the world He arranges just for us. The love letters He’s written to us throughout the Bible.
These are all mercies from Him.
The world will offer us comfort in the form of escape. … Trying to fill our aching hearts with [the comforts of the world] is like trying to fill an ocean with the tablespoon. It’s never enough. So we clench our fists and keep trying to find something to comfort us.
If only we knew how to stop clenching our fists so that we could open our hands and catch the drops of His tender mercy. If only we knew how to release the weight of trying to fix it all ourselves. If only we knew how to stop in the midst of it all and whisper, Jesus … help me. Just a whispered breath formed in the wholeness of His Name carries all the power and mercy and wisdom and grace we need to handle what we face.
If only we knew.
If you find yourself wanting to escape today into one of the world’s comforts, first invest some time in asking Jesus to help you, show you, and direct you. Hebrews 4:15 and 16 reminds us of how approachable He is, how He understands our struggles and graciously offers us help and hope.
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”1
Specifically, ask Him to help you to see and notice His tender mercies. Then you will see that, indeed, one drop of the Lord’s mercy is better than an ocean of the world’s temporary comforts.
Jesus, I don’t want to spend another day chasing after things that will never satisfy. Instead, I pray that I would begin to truly see how high and how deep is the love You have for me. Help me catch the tender drops of Your mercy, and teach me how to fully embrace Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.—Lysa TerKeurst2
His mercy endures forever
“Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever.”3
The word translated “mercy” in the original language means “loyal, steadfast, enduring love.” The refrain “His mercy endures forever”4 is also translated, “His faithful love endures forever”5 and “His steadfast love endures forever.”6 Mercy, or loyal love, is one of the most prominent attributes of God’s character. By His very nature, He shows unstoppable, limitless, everlasting mercy, even to those who don’t deserve it: “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.”7 …
Thankfully, the Lord’s faithful love does not depend on the whim of emotion or its recipient’s worthiness. God’s steadfast goodness to those He loves is inherent in who He is: “God is love.”8 Often, when trials come, we feel abandoned by God. Sometimes our sinful disobedience envelops our hearts in such darkness that we believe God most certainly has rejected us forever. Like the people of Jeremiah’s day, we wonder if our troubling circumstances are evidence that God no longer loves us and His mercy toward us has run out. In times like these, we must recall God’s promise through Jeremiah and let these words comfort us, too: “For the LORD is good; his love endures forever.”
The Lord forgives those who repent and return to Him: “You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.”9 He does not hold our sins against us. God remains faithful because He cannot deny who He is.10 He is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”11
To the one who feels least deserving of His mercy, the Bible says, “The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”12
The new covenant God promised to Israel is ours to experience today through a living and personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who trust in the Lord are partakers of His love and mercy forever. Even in our darkest moments when all hope seems lost, we must remember His mercy endures forever.—From GotQuestions.org13
Aspects of God’s mercy
God’s mercy is abundant and endures forever:
You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.14
Your mercy reaches unto the heavens, and Your truth unto the clouds.15
Oh, give thanks to the lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.16
They sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord: “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever toward Israel.”17
God’s mercy is shown to them who love Him:
Know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.18
His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation.19
His mercy is also extended to those who don’t love Him:
The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made.20
Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.21
The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him.22
God, in His love and mercy, has made a way that we, who are sinners, can be redeemed. His holiness and righteousness, along with His grace and mercy—all part of God’s nature and character, part of His very being—work together in His divine love to do what is impossible for man to do: to atone for our sins, to take away the separation from God which sin brings, so that we can live eternally with Him.
The following are quotes from theologian Karl Barth that beautifully express how God’s love, mercy, and grace emanate from His nature and being.
The mercy of God lies in His readiness to share in sympathy the distress of another, a readiness which springs from His inmost nature and stamps all His being and doing.23
God’s love and grace are not just mathematical or mechanical relations, but have their true seat and origin in the movement of the heart of God.24
Not wanting any to perish, God provided the means of salvation through Jesus, so that through faith in Him we are delivered from death, from punishment for our sin, from separation from God. This is the precious gift of our patient, gracious, and merciful God.—Peter Amsterdam
*
I crown you with lovingkindness and tender mercies. You need vast quantities of these blessings, and I delight in providing them for you. Your job is to open your heart fully to Me, acknowledging—to yourself and to Me—how needy you are. Many people are afraid to face their neediness because they doubt that anyone could ever provide all that they lack. Humanly speaking, this is true. But I have infinite reservoirs of blessings for My children. Moreover, My lovingkindness is an eternal gift, for I have loved you with an everlasting Love. I am committed to you!
All of My children need mercy—compassionate treatment—and you are no exception. I offer you multiple mercies, and I do this tenderly. So come to Me when you are feeling weak and vulnerable. Pour out your heart to Me, and rest in My Presence. Remember that you are redeemed royalty, purchased with My own blood. Hold still—with dignity and confidence—while I crown you with loving kindness and tender mercies.—Jesus25
Published on Anchor April 2022. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.
Music by John Listen.
1 Hebrews 4:15–16 NIV.
2 Lysa TerKeurst, Embraced (Thomas Nelson, 2018).
3 Psalm 136:1–3 NKJV.
4 KJV and NKJV.
5 NLT.
6 ESV.
7 Micah 7:18.
8 1 John 4:8, 16.
9 Psalm 86:5; see also 1 John 1:9.
10 2 Timothy 2:13.
11 Psalm 103:8–10.
12 Lamentations 3:22–23 NLT.
13 https://www.gotquestions.org/His-mercy-endures-forever.html.
14 Psalm 86:5 NKJV.
15 Psalm 57:10 NKJV.
16 1 Chronicles 16:34 NKJV.
17 Ezra 3:11 NKJV.
18 Deuteronomy 7:9 NKJV.
19 Luke 1:50 ESV.
20 Psalm 145:9 ESV.
21 Luke 6:35–36 ESV.
22 Daniel 9:9 NIV.
23 Karl Barth, The Doctrine of the Word of God, Vol.1, Part 2 (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2010), 369.
24 Barth, Doctrine of the Word of God, 370.
25 Sarah Young, Jesus Today (Thomas Nelson, 2012).
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