Maybe I\u2019m dating myself, but do you remember vinyl records? When scratched, they\u2019d skip and replay the same lyric over and over. That\u2019s me when it comes to mercy\u2014I might sound like a broken record, but it\u2019s a message worth repeating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last Sunday at church, we sang the old hymn again:
\u201cMercy there was great and grace was free\u2026\u201d
And mercy has been echoing in my soul ever since.
God\u2019s mercy is endless — and not just for me, but for me to give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And let\u2019s be honest\u2026 sometimes I need extra help in that department. I let people\u2019s quirks get under my skin (can I get an amen?). But then, James 3:17 drops like a divine reminder: \u201cWisdom from above is\u2026 full of mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ouch! Message received, Lord.
Mercy is multi-layered — it\u2019s not just giving someone a second chance. It\u2019s going the extra mile for those who are hurting. It\u2019s building bridges where we\u2019d rather build fences. It\u2019s choosing kindness when revenge would feel better — but isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yes, mercy is also loving the cranky neighbor, forgiving the friend who let you down, and smiling at the checker who’s clearly having one of those days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Romans 12:8 says, \u201cIf you show mercy, do it cheerfully.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, no eye rolls. Mercy with joy, not obligation.
And Jesus? He modeled it best. He didn\u2019t avoid the messy. He went straight to it — hanging out with outcasts, touching lepers, loving the unlovely. When asked why, He said:
\u201cI want you to show mercy, not just go through the motions.\u201d (Matthew 9:13)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re all going to need mercy between now and heaven. And here\u2019s the kicker — we can\u2019t receive what we\u2019re unwilling to give.
So, Lord, help us dish out mercy like You do: freely, abundantly, and with joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when we mess it up (because we will), remind us — You\u2019ve got more mercy waiting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maybe I\u2019m dating myself, but do you remember vinyl records? When scratched, they\u2019d skip and replay the same lyric over and over. That\u2019s me when it comes to mercy\u2014I might sound like a broken record, but it\u2019s a message worth repeating. Last Sunday at church, we sang the old hymn again:\u201cMercy there was great and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20738,1210,2255,1769,31968,1392,267,40,31971,1236,31970,31969,20729,30207],"class_list":["post-22286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-at-calvary","tag-blog","tag-broken-record","tag-christian","tag-extra-mile","tag-facebook","tag-faith","tag-inspiration","tag-matthew-913","tag-mercy","tag-mercy-with-joy","tag-romans-128","tag-vinyl-records","tag-wisdom-from-above"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22291,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22286\/revisions\/22291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}