He
has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of
you?
To
act justly and to love mercy and to
walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
And what does the Lord require? He requires that we love mercy, that we love kindness.
An often quoted, frequently stated prayer is "Lord, have mercy." Consider a time when you might have said the
very same words. What was going on in your life at that very moment? What were you asking God for? What did you need God to do? In place of
giving him all the details, the words "Lord, have mercy" were
adequate. There was no need to say more.
And what happened? The Lord showed you
mercy through the acts of others.
As God's mercies are new to us every
morning, so should our mercies to others be the same. We are challenged to be like hose pipes. As God's mercies flow into our lives, so must
those mercies flow through us into the lives of others. Just as water flows from its source into and
through the hose pipe, so too should the mercies of God flow in and through our
lives. Should water flow into the hose
pipe and not out the other end, what happens? The hose pipe will burst
open. It cannot contain the water. So too with us, nothing out, no more in. No new mercies can flow in. We become less and less useful to God and to
His people who come across our paths.
"Lord have mercy" on me so that I may have mercy on,
show loving-kindness to, all before me.
Which comes first -- my receiving mercy or my giving mercy? No wonder
the Lord requires us to love mercy.
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