Putting Some Mercy In the Bank

670- Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 2Sa 22:26-28, “With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; 27 With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. 28 You will save the humble people; But Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down. (2 Sam 22:25-28) Let's look at these spiritual laws of cause and effect. God says that if you are merciful He will show Himself merciful to you. The word “show” is important here because He could've left it out and said “to the merciful I will be merciful,” and let it go at that, But with the use of the word “show” God says you will “see” My mercy. You won't have to guess, “oh was that God's mercy?” You will see it, experience it, know it, rejoice in it and praise Him for it just as David does here! But what exactly is God's mercy? In a word it is kindness and coming from God, it is perfect kindness. It is sympathetic forbearance for you, applied to your circumstances. There is no better example of this then what we see in the account of the Good Samaritan. In this parable of Jesus found in Luke, 10:25-37, God's mercy is painted for us in the actions of the Good Samaritan. First of all, mercy is not scurrying past a situation like the priest and the Levite. No! The Good Samaritan (Jesus) stops, kneels down, renders the necessary aid, and provides care as long as needed. Do you want some of that in your life? Do you want God showing patient sympathy for your circumstances? He promises to show it to us when we need it, if only we will show it to others. Compassion and mercy are not native to our flesh. We would just as soon be selfish. But these attributes are native to the Holy Spirit who moves us to action on the part of those who need it. Don't blow off these stirrings. Act on them! Extend mercy to others. I believe God stirs us to action for those in need that we might bank some of His mercy for future use in our own lives, because let's face it, there's times when life leaves us wounded in the ditch and we need it!