Mercy

Paul must have been “reading my mail” when the Holy Spirit prompted him to say: 

“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.  The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.  But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. 

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. 

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” (Galatians 5:16-25 NLT) 

I keep committing the same sins over and over.  It is a wonder that God hasn’t thrown me into Hell a long time ago: 

“Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?  Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25 NLT) 

We cannot continue in a sinful style of living, willfully doing wrong, and treading underfoot God’s love and mercy.  To break the power of sin, we need to walk in the strength of the Holy Spirit and in vital union with Christ.  If we break fellowship with God by sinning, He will restore it if we sincerely turn away from our sinful lifestyle, confess our sins to Him, and accept His forgiveness. (Romans 8:1-2) 

“This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.  So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.  But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.  But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.  If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.” (1John 1:5-10 NLT)

 

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good!

His faithful love endures forever.

 

Let all Israel repeat:

“His faithful love endures forever.”

Let Aaron’s descendants, the priests, repeat:

“His faithful love endures forever.”

Let all who fear the LORD repeat:

“His faithful love endures forever.”

 

In my distress I prayed to the LORD,

and the LORD answered me and set me free.

(Psalm 118:1-5 NLT) * 

 

*  Acknowledgement: All Bible verses quoted were copied from: https://biblehub.com/