If a stranger walked up to you and said,
“I’ll have mercy on you.”
That would make no sense.
You might think, ‘I don’t even know you, I haven’t done anything to you.’—(Justin Peters)
Until we realize that we’ve actually offended God....
The mercy He gives us makes no sense. And we remain under the judgement of our sins until that moment is realized.
Do you realize you have sinned against God?
Do you also realize there is nothing you can do to earn that mercy?
Wait what?!
That’s right. Nothing you can do to earn it.
Being a good person won’t do it
Being someone who helps others wont do it
Being someone who shares their wealth or blessings won’t do it.
Being someone who is thoughtful and peaceful with others won’t do it either.
Just so I nail the lid on this thought.
Let’s be extremely clear.
There is not one thing you can do; to ever, earn your own entrance into heaven as a child of God. Nothing.
Jesus told a story about a man who owed a King a fortune, what one couldn’t even make in earnings over the course of an entire lifespan. Yet he begged the king to let him pay him back. The king had mercy on the man and forgave him the debt he could never possibly repay.
This is what it is like with us.
We can only beg that the King has mercy on us.
There isn’t a magical prayer that will save us.
Utter these words.
And you will be saved and on your way
with a wonderful plan that God has for your life......
We can only beg He gives us mercy.
Beg that He makes us new
Takes our hearts of stone
(a heart that doesn’t care if it sins)
And make it into a heart of flesh
(that desires to please the king).
Do you see a pattern in all these words.
Only He grants.
Only He gives
It is through Him and
His power that;
Anything is done.
Understand your role.
You don’t earn, yes, you can never earn
your saving faith through reciting a prayer.
You don’t earn it through becoming smart enough to figure out God
You don’t earn it through being sorry because you sinned.
You don’t earn it. Period.
I mentioned “saving faith” a moment ago.
Your Faith.
You don’t even earn or figure that out for yourself. God gives you that too....
Wait what?!
Yeah.....Faith. Given to you.
Peter had just confessed Jesus as the Messiah, as the Son of the Living God.
What did Jesus say???
“Blessed are you Simon Barjona (Peter), for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”—Matt 16:17
In other words you didn’t just figure this out with the faculties God has given you (that is: your brain)
But God alone gave this revelation to you.
He planted it in your mind.
That why he starts the verse off with....
’Blessed are you.’
Blessed, why?
Because he just won the prize for answering correctly???
No.
Blessed are you, because you just received something from God, that you just received a gift, that IS the blessing.
God chose to reveal something to you.
Something otherwise hidden from your eyes.
Do you understand that your being saved is entirely a work of God.
Left to yourself, you will die in your sins.
We all will.
Romans 1, (paraphrased) for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie....therefore God gave them over to.....
To the lust of their hearts, to impurity
To degrading passions
To a depraved mind
Loved ones, understand this.
When we see people saying things or waving signs like:
“if America doesn’t turn from its sin God will judge us.”
They are getting Romans 1 backwards.
God is already judging us, that’s the therefore. He’s letting us go to fall to the destruction of ourselves.
Ever wonder why our personal lives are so devastated with chaos, confusion
We are falling under the condemnation of a Holy God who punishes sin.
I don’t care one thing any longer for the things of FB, for the politics, how Trump or Obama ruined this country. I pray for you. Right now.
For your soul. As my friend reading this.
I pray you will....
Understand your sin.
Understand how it devastates your life
Understand how it keeps you perpetually from God
Or maybe you think
I’m doing just fine without God. Or even;
God’s blessed me pretty good and I don’t worry about that nonsense you’re talking about Geoff. Let’s come back full circle.
Back to the beginning of the post
If you don’t know your sin
then you never can and
never will know the Mercy God grants.
Check out this conversation:
“65 And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." Peter's Confession of Faith
66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.
67 So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?"
68 Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” (John 6:65, NASB)
And only God grants it. Period.
Pray He grants you faith to believe.
Pray He grants you repentance
Pray He turns you from being wicked
Yes I said wicked....read any of the gospels and see if Jesus thinks you’re basically a good person??
Pray He grants you salvation.
Pray He regenerates you. (Born again, spiritually)
Today is the day for your salvation.
Not tomorrow. Or just before you die.
Today.
Don’t hold onto a prayer that said “Jesus I accept you into my life.”
You may have always heard that as the “Sinners Prayer” (for all you church people reading this)
You...
Accept...
Jesus...
Let’s me tell you something.
Jesus IS the King.
Regardless of whether or not you accept him.
You will answer for your sin.
The question is:
Are you covered in His Mercy?
Or are you gonna wing it....???
Don’t wing it....
That’s a bad plan. A very bad plan.
If you wanna talk. We can. Seek out scripture.
Start here; (Jesus says)
John 6:44. “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent me, draws him;”
I’d love for you to PM me the next line in that verse if you’d like to start the conversation.
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