The Infinite Resource of Mercy

Last year was a campaign year, so we got to hear discussions ad nauseum regarding the dire state of our world’s resources.

Much of the rhetoric was aimed at exploiting what are known as “renewable resources,” because many have grave concerns about the state of our fossil fuel reserves, timber and other raw materials, since many of these are finite. In other words, once they’re used up, they’re irrevocably gone.

But regardless of your political views and your take on the state of the world’s resources, there’s one resource we know will never be exhausted: God’s mercy.

One of the most famous refrains in Scripture is, “…For his mercy endureth for ever.”

In Psalm 117, the psalmist advises us to praise the Lord, “for his merciful kindness is great toward us” (verse 2). The Reina-Valera version of the Bible in Spanish translates this slightly differently: “For he has enlarged his mercy upon us.” This evokes a wonderful mental picture of man moving away from God toward the outer boundaries of God’s mercy…and of God continuing to move the boundaries outward so man does not cross the point of no return.

The Apostle Peter said it this way: ” The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9).

Thank God for the renewable resource of mercy! “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).