There can be a preference for calm and amiable relations when it comes to interactions with others.
That preference, however, can be overruled by a desire for retribution when offended, wronged or otherwise affronted. You upset me in some way large or small and I’ll not just be hurt, but nurse the hurt and give you a look. Give you the kind of look that says, ‘I know you hurt me, I see you hurt me, I feel the hurt you gave me and I’ll never forget it.’ There is, of course, a bit more to it than that. For my hurt, I hope you suffer hurt. I wish you would suffer at least as much as I did. If it was more than my hurt, then I wouldn’t mind that too much, after all, you hurt me.
Of course I don’t say that verbally. I might even put on a smile and assure you that it’s alright. And because we’re the civil types, I’m sure I won’t let it affect our future interactions. Outwardly. Inside, however, still lurks that cauldron of the soul where bubbles the hurt that turned into bitterness that simmers waiting for the slightest infraction to enact a reaction.
There is something remarkably different about the merciful person.
Their starting point is not how they interact with you. Their frame of reference is how they interact with God. They acknowledge that they are flawed people and they have sinned. They know that sin spoils the relationship with God. It ruins it. It blots it. They see a great and holy God and notice how they are not holy or that great at all. They notice the chasm is large and there is nothing they in their power can do about it. They see what God has done in Jesus Christ in forgiving them of their sins, in making a way to relate with Him because of His character of mercy.
Open to that and overflowing with gratitude for these truths, they receive the love of God and know that what they’ve received is for others.
This then works itself out in their interactions with others. They get hurt and offended. They don’t avoid this and they don’t they’re above this. They even are honest to notice where that hurt can lead to thoughts of withdrawing from the one who hurt them. Yet tehy remember what they have received. They remember the love, they remember the grace, they remember the forgiveness, they remember the mercy. The reality of that which overflows in them as they consider Jesus pours into an attitude full of mercy to others. No harbouring grudges, no bearing ills, no hypocrisy presenting false faces that betray the bitterness within.
For a free and clear heart in their relationship with God, they do what it takes to be free and clear in their relations with others. They give what their full of and they are full of mercy.
They behave that way by the grace of God and they are the types worth following.
(Photo by Ben White on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 