Grace and Mercy. The older I get the more these words mean to me. I'm part of a mens bible study and we have young men and old farts (like me). One thing I have noticed is that the much older guys (older than me, anyway), seem to understand mercy and grace to a much greater degree than the younger guys. The younger guys seem to want to live by very strict rules and if you step out of their defined definition of righteousness or goodness, than by god, somebody needs to straighten them out. Whereas the older guys know that, there by the grace (and mercy) of God, go I.
It seems that we christians could use a whole lot more forgiveness and love of our non-believing friends and a lot less condemnation and scorn.
I think our attitude towards grace & mercy depends a lot on our real life experiences. Many of us who have been raised in the church have thought yes we are saved by grace because that is what the Bible says but it is only when life has broken us down do we truly experience the grace & mercy that living Gods shows us. David's most heart felt Psalms were written after his Bathsheba experience.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jon completely. Being a part of the younger generation, we have lived a pretty sheltered life so far. We haven't had the experience of truly knowing the yo-yo effect of sin and repentance, and that we can't tackle sin on our own. Grace and mercy can really only come when people completely surrender all control of their lives and acknowledge that it is only by God, through his grace and mercy, that we can face the struggles in our lives.
ReplyDeleteGiving up control is hard thing to do.