** For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. ** John 1:17
In our post, The Path of Mercy, we talked a little about the Lord’s constant pouring out of His mercy on those that are trying to live for Him. Today, as I am reading John chapter 1, I am pondering His grace.
What is the difference between mercy and grace? I am sure we all know the answer.
Mercy is not getting what we deserve, which we talked about in the Mercy post. We deserve to be at least chastised in some way for the mistakes and the sins that we commit on any given day. But God sees our heart desiring to do right and to do what pleases Him, so He patiently and mercifully gives us time to learn how to do that.
Grace, on the other hand, is getting so much more than we deserve of blessings, goodness, kindness, gentleness, longsuffering, love, and forgiveness.
Grace is having the Lord love us perfectly even though we do not love Him perfectly.
Grace is giving us the strength to face the day even when it is our own fault that we are not strong because we stayed up too late or did not eat a healthy diet that would help us maintain our strength.
Grace is touching the hearts of others to be kind to us, even when we know they have every right to be as mean to us as we have been mean to them. ( I just received a large dose of that grace this week!)
Grace is showing patience with us when we are in crisis and we are emotional, fearful, worried, even panicky and stressed, when we should be praying, giving thanks and trusting that He knows what He is doing by allowing this trial to disrupt our comfortable world.
Grace is Jesus knowing what it is like to live in this world, day to day, and having compassion on us while we figure out how to live here as well as He lived here.
** All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. ** Psalm 25:10
Mercy is shown to all who continue following the Lord and learning His ways. It is His superpower to forgive our sins, from day to day and hour to hour because He knows we are frail and foolish and it takes us forever to learn. One day we will be with Him, forever, and leave this sinful life behind. He is willing to wait for that day.
Grace is His pouring out His blessing and love on us while on this long journey of discovery about Him and His ways.
Mercy and grace. My two favorite words. God’s two best superpowers.