Rest in God's mercy

 Rest in God's mercy 

To rest means to relax into something and let it support you. You rest yourself on the couch or bed after a whole day of hustle and bustle. It's a moment of stillness and calm, releasing all your stress and recovering the strength for tommorow.

These days wherever you turn you hear only about natural disasters,calamities and pandemics, which fills our heart with so much distress, uncertainty and fear. We fear what tomorrow will bring. We fear for our dear ones and their safety. We fear for ourselves. In the midst of all of this where could our weary heart find it's rest?

All natural disasters — whether floods, famines, locusts, tsunamis, or diseases are a thunderclap of divine mercy in the midst of judgment, calling all people everywhere to repent and realign their lives, by grace, with the infinite worth of the glory of God.When words cannot explain the circumstances that can overwhelm us it is good to just stop and to get lost in the wonder of God and God's mercy. Yes our restless heart finds its rest in God's mercy. 

King David very well knew about God's mercy. As we read through 1 Chronicles 21 we find our hero, King David falling again into sin. Until now I only thought of David's sin with respect to Bethsheba. I never noticed that he had many instances of fall and rise. Infact during the end of his reign,even after witnessing God's wonderful provisions and power through out his reign we find this not so perfect yet God's beloved falling into the temptation of satan. This teaches us a very significant lesson that even the best of saints are not immune to sin. We are always prone to sin unless we watch and pray and resist satan's tricks. But there is a big assurance that satan will not touch or tempt God's anointed unless God allows it. When God allows it He intends to bring His anointed to repentance,He intends for a greater good.

Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

I Chronicles 21:1

Satan arose against Israel. As Satan arose so arose the pride in King David's heart. David commanded Joab to go number Israel so that he may know the strength of his army. David's heart started relying on his own strength than God's. He took pride on the count of his army. Where pride is; destruction follows.Many a times we are proud and count on our own strengths, abilities and accomplishments. We forget the greater truth that all I am and all I have is from God. God struck Israel and David realized his mistake.Often we need God's strike to realize the sinfulness of our life. God gave him options to choose the punishment and he chose to fall into the hand of God. This time this hand was not a hand of protection but it was a hand of fierce judgement. 

The heart which sheltered pride is now broken with humility. David is surrounded by the fierce judgement of God -the pestilence which killed 70000 men ( the count on which he took pride of) and the angel with the drawn sword to destroy Jerusalem. Imagine the plight of David - the guilt of his sin which caused the fresh 70000 graves and his beloved city Jersualem is under the drawn sword of God's angel. Yes our sin can effect many others. So much of guilt, so much of fear. In the midst of all of this the one thing that touched me is that David sees God's mercies greater than all of the devastation.

And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

I Chronicles 21:13

Even in the midst of judgement God's mercy is greater he believed. He could only comfort his heart with this truth- God's mercy endures for ever. This gives us a great relief that God's mercy triumphs over his judgement. God's mercy is greater than any of the mistakes we make. God's mercy is greater than any calamity. God's intention of bringing this calamity was repentance. Even before David repented God relented from destroying.While we were still sinners God had mercy on us.

And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, the Lord looked and relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

I Chronicles 21:15

The Lord looked - Yes He sees our plight. He remembers that we are dust. He extends His mercy to the undeserving sinners like us. When God bestows mercy, He is withholding from us the wrath or punishment that our sins deserve;

One of the beautiful definition about mercy by 

William Barclay is “To get inside someone’s skin until we can see things with his eyes, think things with his mind, and feel things with his feelings; to move in and act on behalf of those who are hurting. 

To move and act on behalf of those who are hurting. Yes our merciful God,our ever compassionate God knows how we feel,what we feel. He moves with compassion when He sees our tears. He is near to the broken hearted, the repentive soul. He hears their sighs, He remembers their substance. His anger is but for a moment but his mercy is for ever. 

David repented, prayed, offered the sacrifices. God answered and the sword was withdrawn and put back to its sheath.

So the Lord commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath.

I Chronicles 21:27

In the midst of calamity often people asks where is God?

Martin Luther said, “When you look around and wonder whether God cares, you must always hurry to the cross and you must see Him there.”

Yes He cares. He cares for the one who is suffering,He is merciful to the sinners.It is on this cross where mercy and wrath met. It is on the Cross my saviour Lord Jesus Christ was sacrificed for the sins of mankind. It's on this Cross that God bestowed his mercy on sinner like me. It's on this Cross God didn't command "Enough and withdraw ", instead he let the fierce sword of judgement fall upon His only begotten Son.

For the days ahead let us throw ourselves into the never ending mercies of God. God's mercies is greater than any of the calamity.God's mercies is greater than any of the mistakes I make. God's mercies triumph over His judgements. God's mercies acts on behalf of those who are hurting. When in doubt about God's mercies just turn your eyes to the cross of calvary. 

May God help us all to be watchful, prayerful and resting in God's mercy and let God's mercy support you through all the calamities. His mercy will take us through !!