Blessed Are The Merciful: …They Shall Receive…”

Matthew 5:7 says  “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

How can a merciful person gain happiness or be blessed? What does it really mean to be merciful? What causes you to be merciful? Is it something you should do to receive mercy? Do you see yourself as pitiful or needing mercy? Probably not, but are you pitiful or need mercy?

I will answer these questions, plus some added info you need. Watch!

INTRO

Let’s start our visit about being merciful with a definition.

First, what is merciful as found in this verse? It is more than just pity. It is more than just feeling compassion. It is being actively compassionate.

Let’s suppose you are watching television, especially near Christmas, and you see an ad for a pet rescue service. They begin showing you small dogs with disfigured faces, or a dog with only 3 legs. It really tugs on your heart. You feel something. You have pity. But the microwave pings and you remember your popcorn and go to retrieve it, forgetting about the needs of the pets. This is just feeling pity or compassion. It is not giving aid to a pet in need.

Or, let’s suppose you are in a large city and you see a homeless person pushing his shopping cart down the sidewalk. He hits a small rock. The cart tips and dumps everything out. What do you feel? Do you wish he would just clean up and get a job? Well, that is certainly not being merciful. Do you feel sadness? Or, do you stop and help him? That is giving aid to someone in need. That is being actively compassionate.

Jesus had several opportunities to be actively compassionate. Like the two blind men following him, yelling, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” And there was that  Canaanite woman crying out to him, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” Jesus could be actively compassionate to the father of a boy having frequent seizures that threw him into fires or into the water.

What made Jesus merciful? It began with him understanding and feeling the needs of these people. It was like he took on their problems as though they were his. He felt what they felt. He emotionally experienced their situation.

But then he went to the next level. He began to do something about their problems. He gave sight to the blind men. He tossed out the demon from the girl. He cured the boy with seizures. He was merciful. His compassion developed into action.

What do you feel when you see an unkept alcoholic in an alley? What about someone who has lost touch with their family, friends, or co-workers? Or a homeless person with no place to get out of the weather? Or a man on the street corner holding a cardboard sign? What do you feel?

I hope you feel pity and compassion. But will you be like Jesus? He felt their situation and DID SOMETHING about it. This is being merciful. Compassion plus action

But let’s take a closer look at every one. Each of us, at some point, has been a wretch. When God sees us, he can see people without the correct direction for living. We are so full of sin and bad choices that, to him, we look “homeless”.

God sees sinners as blind and helpless. For example, Jesus, speaking of the Pharisees said, “Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

God felt pain when he saw us dying in our sinful condition and did something about it. He provided his Son as a life-giver.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

God sees Christians who are not taking Jesus seriously. And God sees good, honest, God-seekers, being unwittingly misguided into false religions. What does he feel? Is it painful to him? Does he want them to change? Is he wanting to be merciful to them?

What do YOU feel when you see what God is seeing? These folks are acting like they are blind. They need your help. Will you have compassion on them and take the needed action? Will you be merciful?

God wants us to be merciful like he is. Remember the parable of the unmerciful debtor. A lord forgave a servant of an unpayable debt of 10,000 talents. He was expecting the forgiven servant to be merciful to his fellow servants. But he was not. He had a fellow servant imprisoned for owning a tiny debt of 100 denarii. When the master heard of the actions of the unmerciful servant, he became indignant and had the unmerciful servant put in prison until he paid every penny – a life sentence.

And what happens if we do allow ourselves the freedom to do good to anyone struggling? When we start with the correct motives, that is, when we feel the pain and problems of others and then start helping them, we are becoming more like God himself. And God will see to it that we receive mercy when its needed.

Our God can take anyone who is actively compassionate, helpful, kind, sensitive, understanding, patient, and forgiving and give them joy and happiness that is hard to explain. They know they can’t change the entire world, but they can make a difference in one person today. They can act like Jesus. They can speak of how Jesus has been good to them. They can feel and fix. Paul said, “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Do you have questions about how to apply the Bible to your life? Do you struggle with putting these Beatitudes into practice? Those of us here at Timeless Talks want to help. But we can’t, at least until you leave us a voice message, or send a text message to the number here. You can also use the contact page or the prayer request page. You can check our FREE offers for E-booklets and Transcripts. We have videos you can watch.

Here at Timeless Talks, we love you and want you to have a good life now. And with your obedience and God’s grace, heaven becomes a real possibility.

Hey, come back tomorrow and let’s visit again. Until then, Goodbye for now.