Smile God Loves You!! Psalm 100:5 - Sunday Scripture

This Sunday's Scripture on God's Love is Psalm 100 v 5  

 One of the things that makes God Good is His Everlasting Love which is exactly what this verse talks about and then it leads on to His Faithfulness.

Look at the powerful words we see in this verse telling us about the Lord, His Goodness, Love and Faithfulness.


It tells us 2 things about this Love

• it is steadfast  -  sure, dependable, unmovable, like an anchor
• it endures -  lasts, strives, overcomes everything

Because of this great dependable love that overcomes everything God is faithful to all of us who come to Him.

What else could we ask for to feel (as the well known hymn states)

"safe and secure from all alarms"

The Love that makes God the True Faithful One.

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 100

Each Sunday I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on it.


Today I'm looking at Psalm 100 


This is a Psalm for the Thank Offering.

This Psalm falls into three parts:

V. 1-2
What?


V. 3
Who?


V. 4
When & How?


V. 5
Why?

What are we required to do for this thank offering?
Be joyful in our Praise unto the Lord and not just us but all the earth.
Serve the Lord not as a duty but gladly.
Enter His presence with a song on our lips.


Who is this thank offering for?
It is for the Lord and He is God.
He is our creator, we belong to Him and he is our Shepherd who cares for us.

How to give a thank offering to God

When is this thank offering to be given?
It is to be presented to the Lord when we are within the gates of His Holy presence.
Then also when we are even further into His presence. with all Praise and Blessing unto Him.


How is this thank offering to be given?
It is to be presented with all Praise and Blessing unto the Lord our God.


Why should we bring this thank offering?
Because the Lord is good, He loves us continually forever and ever and He is a faithful God.

Where is this thank offering to come from?

From our hearts because of the joy and gladness there.

From the knowledge in our minds of how Good the Lord is to us.

From the honour of being invited into His Holy presence.

From the understanding that there is no-one like our Lord.

The How of Mercy - A Dose of Encouragement

Having looked at various aspects of God's Mercy this month including
What is Mercy?  
When can I receive Mercy?  
The Where, Why & Who of Mercy

 plus

Not focusing on our guilt because of His Mercy in You're Not guilty Anymore last month

we have now come to the last blog post on Mercy which I hope will make us sit up and pay attention because although we do not earn God's Mercy we do need to do something

              we need to receive it.

Yes we have a choice we can receive it wholeheartedly and believe what God has said or we can never get out of our guilt and remain in a state where we never fully rejoice in His great love for us.

How Do We Obtain this Mercy?

By the Grace of God through Jesus.

Mercy is extended freely to us and even if we don't comprehend how God would ever desire to be so good to us we need to receive this offering.

But

Sometimes
     We don't even recognize His Mercy

Sometimes
     We don't even realize we need His Mercy


Yes
God gives His Mercy but we need to accept it.

That is okay at Salvation - we completely get it then and are so thankful for it then.

But we also need to accept it throughout our Christian walk.

Yes even though we know He is merciful we don’t really take it in properly that He is always merciful to us and we don’t think we can have this beautiful thing He is offering so we don’t accept it and we stay in a state of not forgiving ourselves and feeling unworthy to do anything for Him
.

1.     We must truly believe He is Merciful.

        None of the

•         He can't really like the way I still can be?
•         He couldn't possibly use me for His Glory? 

        Let me tell you He is still merciful even if you have been saved 40 years.

2.     We must not listen to the devil.

        None of the

•         You can't be forgiven yet again.
•         You can't believe God has the patience for you

3.     We must listen to the Holy Spirit.
     
                 Condemnation comes from the devil but encouragement comes from the Holy Spirit


4.     We must read and believe the Bible.
     
                 This will help us to see the examples of His Mercy and understand it better.


5.     We must know that we are special to God.
     
                 You must accept it even if you find it hard to understand - You are special to God.


6.     If you believe He wants to save you; you also have to believe He wants to show His Mercy to you.


Mercy is God's but it is also Ours.
We must allow God to show His Mercy.
We must accept His Mercy to live the life He means us to live.
The life where we are not condemned or unworthy to work for Him.
The life that is under His hand and not under the devil's.
The life that can then also extend Mercy to others.




How Should We Show God's Mercy?

By allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us.

Remember the Beattitudes

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." 

Being merciful means to show kindness to everyone and to forgive those who do things that may hurt you. It is realizing that everyone makes mistakes.

One of the great examples to us of mercy in the Bible comes from John 8 v 1-11 

  

 1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

 (KJV)  from BibleGateway.com

Mercy doesn't focus on a person but on a person's need.

Mercy is active compassion to someone in need

mercy banishes revenge

mercy keeps us grounded

it imitates God but disappoints satan

Mercy says "not my will but thine be done"

We do not know better than God

so accept one another as God accepted you.

If we focus on the person we will tend to fall back into the "deserve or earn" way of thinking

REMEMBER

God loves us so much with His great love   (Ephesians 2 v 4)

that He is rich in mercy which means   (Psalm 100 v 5)

He has so much mercy for us that He will never run out of it

And this was not just said for the people at the time it was written because it clearly states here that it is everlasting

so rejoice because it means He is still rich in Mercy TODAY toward US.

How can we not be thankful that our God is so generous in 

His Mercy.

The Other Blog Posts in this mini Mercy Series are:
What is Mercy
When Can I Receive Mercy?
Where, Why, Who of Mercy

Why We Worship 12

I am taking time each week to ask myself "Why we worship"

Oh I have such a problem this week!

There are just too many verses in the Bible that I want to share because today I'm thinking about how good God is.

I will pick this one especially as I featured another one of them a few months ago in an earlier post Thankfulness, Goodness, Love.

When we think about this we probably tend to compare the goodness we see in the acts of others toward us or toward other people, with the Goodness of God.

But we really cannot do this as the goodness of God is perfection because He knows what is best for everyone and our goodness toward each other can never be perfect. 

Thankfully, because we learn from God then we can reflect some of His Goodness in the acts we do too.

                Thank you God!

     We see almost the identical sentiment spoken in    
                        

Psalm 100:5

For the Lord is good;His mercy is everlasting,And His truth endures to all generations.

            

and we can all shout together