Mercy

Mercy. What is it?

Picture this: you’re washing your hands in the school bathroom and you hear someone crying from a bathroom stall. “Hello?” you ask, “Is anyone there?”  When the stall door finally opens, you see Joanna, the school bully, her face stained with tears.”Is anything wrong?” you ask.

At first she doesn’t say anything, and you’re about to walk out on her, but she finally spills it all out. Her family has been fighting among themselves for a long time, her parents are planning a divorce, her friends don’t like her anymore, her older sister ran away, and Joanna is pretty sure that life is over.

You feel sorry for her – and then you remember.

This is the same girl who stepped on your foot in the school play—on purpose. This is the same girl who brags on and on about the wonderful life she has. This is the same girl who brings up your favorite bands and calls them lame. This is the same girl who crushed your self-esteem. And now her life is falling apart? Is it possible?

And now you have a tough decision to make. You can:
A) Sit beside her, slip your arm around her shoulders, and ask, “Is there anything I can do?”
B) Chuckle a bit, say, “What a lie”, and walk out on her.

It’s never easy to be merciful, though. If somebody hurts you, you want to give them a taste of their own medicine. You want to gossip about them, be angry and bitter towards them, and reject them.
But, is that the right way to do it?

Let me give you an example of someone in the Bible that God showed mercy to: Paul, formerly named Saul. He viciously hated God’s people, and killed many of them. Now, God should’ve let his wrath and judgment out on this guy because he killed His people, right? After all, that’s the natural thing for us to do. But did God do that?

No.
Instead, God had a plan that led Saul to Christ, brought many people to Christ through him, and gave believers everywhere the letters that Paul wrote to different churches. Saul changed his name to Paul, and became one of the most known disciples in the Bible. If God didn’t show mercy to him, what would we have learned from Paul? If God can show mercy to Paul, a man who killed many of His people, then He can certainly show mercy to Joanna – and so should we.

Here are some verses on mercy:

“The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out ‘Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy!'” (Exodus 34:6)

“Praise the Lord! For he has heard my cry for mercy.” (Psalms 28:6)

“Yet He was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all. Many times He held back his anger and did not unleash His fury!” (Psalms 78:38)

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
(Matthew 5:7 )

“Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and disbelief.”
(1 Timothy 1:13)

So, if you want to have the virtue of mercy, you need God. First, pray that God will give you a merciful and forgiving heart, and pray for the person who sinned against you.

Then, next time you see Joanna, just remember what God did to Paul. Then tell that bully that you’ll pray for her, and invite her to church sometime! Although mercy can seem impossible, with God, nothing is impossible.

Rachel is a 12 year old Christian homeschooler from Maine and is the daughter of one of our writers and message board administrator, Karen.. She loves to write Christian fiction and devotionals for tweens and teen girls. When she’s not writing, Rachel loves photography, blogging and listening to music. She desires to encourage other tweens and young teens through her writings.