Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Mercy Comes Running

Good morning, Dear Ones!

The past week I have been hovering on 1 Peter 2 (so behind on my Esther Study b/c I've been chewing on this passage):

1 Peter 2:10 (New Living Translation)


 10 “Once you had no identity as a people;
      now you are God’s people.
   Once you received no mercy;
      now you have received God’s mercy.

I had read a book that shared an "old rabbinical saying:" "when you read and something hits you right in the heart, then you have been kissed by the King."  When you read 1 Peter 2:10, what word(s) stand out to you?  It can change each day as God moves your heart to settle on other words or phrases.  Lately I have been sitting on "Once you received no mercy; now you have received mercy."  To receive we have to sense and recgonize a need.  God is constantly wanting to give but we are not always ready.  We may not see our need for His mercy, love, faith, etc.   Yet, when our hearts see our need we ask for God/Jesus to show us mercy.


When we were wanting to pursue living on our own terms, we didn't want to identify as His... We didn't realize what we were doing or on Who we were missing out on.  Once you ask to know God and Jesus, His name becomes "hallowed" in your heart...set apart from all others.  He adopts you and you start to recognize more and more your need for His presence, love, faithfulness.  Once we did not receive His mercy b/c we didn't want to recieve it or didn't know how.  
His Mercies are NEW EVERY morning... 

Lamentations 3:23 (New Living Translation)

 23 Great is his faithfulness;
      his mercies begin afresh each morning.

He has mercy (pity and compassion) and grace (unearned favor) bursting forth for those who are longing to receive His mercy and grace.  In the midst of pain we can know that He is there and longs for us to ask for His help... He will lift you up.  Let's receive it, today... When we receive we are also better enabled to give to others the love and grace God shows us. 
Love,
Mer




PS A study from Precepts in Austin writes:

YOU HAD NOT RECEIVED MERCY BUT NOW YOU HAVE RECEIVED MERCY: oi ouk eleemenoi (RPPMPN) nun de eleethentes (APPMPN)(Hosea 2:23Romans 11:6,7,301 Corinthians 7:251 Timothy 1:13Hebrews 4:16)

The Greek text has a subtle nuance, for in its fullest sense the last clause reads, 'You had not permanently received mercy, but now you have started receiving continuing mercy.'
Received mercy (1653) (eleeo from eleos =  ) actively means to help someone because of pity or great concern for their condition of need. Passively it means to receive the outward manifestation of pity and be shown mercy.
Mercy refers to the outward manifestation of pity and assumes need on the part of those who receive it and sufficient resources to meet the need on the part of those who show it.
MacArthur (ref) writes that...Mercy is synonymous with compassion and essentially involves God’s sympathy with sinners’ misery and His withholding from them the just punishment for their sins...

Here is a wonderful link full of information for studying 1 Peter 2:9-10: http://www.preceptaustin.org/1_peter_29-10.htm 

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