"Lord have mercy!"

"Lord have mercy!" 

Your birth, summer in the pool, muscles at the beach, singing, graduating, dating, marriage, honeymoon, new baby, first steps, playing in the snow and hearing daddy for the first time – what is the most important moment of your life so far? Are they the happy times like these, the tower moments of your life? Although it sounds a bit crazy I think the most important moments of your life are more than the happy times. The most powerful moments of life are the ones not often found on Facebook or talked about on the ride home. The bad grade you received back in school, the person that broke up with you, the complications at birth, the scary diagnosis at the hospital, or the news you get over the phone that causes you to melt down into a chair, may be so much more valuable than we recognize and even a gift from a loving God. Check out these passages to find out what I mean.

“As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” (Matthew 9:27)

“A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.” (Matthew 15:22)

“When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water.” (Matthew 17:14)

“Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Matthew 20:30-31)

If you went back and read the context of each of those stories you would find out how Jesus answered their prayers. Each of them was healed in a miraculous way. Jesus brought those men sight. Jesus drove out the demon. Jesus stopped the boy’s seizures. Amazing! If they had a Facebook timeline you better believe there would’ve been pictures, posts, invites to parties. Every year they could look back on the anniversary of Jesus showing up and showing off. I get emotional just thinking about what that would mean for me if I were in their shoes and it was my eyes, my daughter, my son… Yet the miracles were not the powerful moments that changed their lives forever. Those powerful moments came earlier, when their issue first surfaced – when they realized they needed help and when they were brought to the realization that Jesus was the only one who could. They were in the position where they deeply needed grace and mercy – they were on their knees. Their life’s situation leading up to this one simple plea, “God have Mercy!”

As painful and crushing as some of the things we live through are, as we study Scripture we realize those moments bring us to our knees so that we would recognize we can’t do it, or we’ve failed, or we’re weak and then we suddenly look for someone who could help and save. It is at that moment when these words can come to our lips. “God have mercy on me! Have mercy on me!” Mercy is pleading that God would not give us what we deserve. It is a setting aside of my ego and clinging to God. This is a position that is uncomfortable, embarrassing, and means that I don’t have everything under control. I am weak – God have mercy on me!

Jesus was and still is greatly concerned about those in need and he shows it with compassion and pity. He does so by going to the heart of the matter. For the first two blind men, they had their faith confirmed. The Canaanite woman whose daughter was sick had her faith tested and then confirmed. The man with a son with seizures was used to test and strengthen the faith of the people watching (the disciples). The other two blind men were used as a testimony to a whole crowd. Jesus’ use of mercy or compassion in healing their physical illnesses brought their attention to something a lot more important – their need for forgiveness and the love and power of a faithful true God, their Savior. Jesus saved them from even more than the pains of sickness and loss but from sin and eternal death. So praise God even for difficult moments and trust in him to see you through them.

Consider this: The worst moments of your life can also be transformed by a loving God to be the most significant and echo into eternity when you know and trust Jesus in the middle of it.

Where would you specifically ask for God’s mercy in your life this month?