Mercy

"Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy." Proverbs 28:13

Finds Mercy. Huh. It’s human nature to try and hide our sins, isn’t it? To overlook them as “little mistakes.” It kind of reminds me of a kid and a forbidden cookie jar.

A kid takes some cookies, cause you know just one never satisfies. But, anyway, a kid takes some cookies knowing they aren’t allowed. Later the guardian goes to the cookie jar and notices a few missing from the dozen made. Upon asking who took some cookies, there’s going to be two different responses.

The one response is to keep their action hidden with either silence or an “I don’t know.” Which, the parent will find out, and once they do, they punish their child with grounding or corners. The child got what they deserved.

The other response is confession. What happens when the child admits to taking some cookies and apologizes for it? Admitting that they did wrong? Typically, the child won’t be grounded or put in the corner. Instead they are shown mercy and told not to do it again.

How much more is God than an earthly parent!

See, you learn from sins and mistakes when you acknowledge them. To learn from them you need to admit them, analyze them, and make adjustments in your life so that they won’t happen again. Only fools repeat their mistakes.

But God has great mercy for us. What is mercy? It is the forgiveness and the withholding of punishments. Think of your life before Christ. Think of all the things you repented of. Pretty bad, right? You deserved “being grounded” or “put in the corner,” huh? Really, you deserved eternal death away from God, didn’t you? I know I did.

But God is kind and loving.

"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." Titus 3:4‭-‬7

This is what Christ does for us when he saved us. We move from a life full of sins and mistakes to one full of God’s Holy Spirit. All of our sins are washed away because of God’s love, kindness, and mercy. He has so much mercy. Because, honestly, we are the ones that should have been on that cross. But He sent Jesus Christ in place of us. He withheld our well deserved punishment and forgave us for what we’ve done and will do. Because, let me tell you, the washing of our sins will occur throughout our earthly lives until we reach eternity with God. Eternity that God so mercifully and graciously gives us.

You don’t deserve this new enriched life. None of us do. Cherish it, make it fruitful. It’s the least you can do to show some gratitude to God, his love for you, and his mercy.