Our hope for mercy depends on our own use of it

God is the judge of the good and the bad.  Sure we should look at good actions and be grateful when we see them and even offer affirmation for the goodness we see.  And, sure, we should notice poor behavior, offer correction as needed, and do it with love and mercy.  But judging the actions is much different than judging the person.  We ought not judge the person, nor do we want to be judged or condemned by others.  We do not want others to presume they know our hearts and motives.   

The world needs more people who are non-judgmental and non-condemning.  We need more people who know how to be true friends and love unconditionally.  And God wants you to be one of those persons.  If you offer this sort of friendship you will most likely be blessed with others who offer this sort of friendship right back!  And with that you will both be blessed!

Jesus has said that because God gives us His mercy, we are to be merciful to others (Luke 6:36-38).  The moment we refuse to give mercy to anyone (think of the most difficult person to love), we pull ourselves away from Him again. And again He waits for us to return to Him whole-heartedly.

Giving mercy doesn't mean condoning the sins of others, nor ignoring them, nor allowing them to continue.  Mercy means that while we wait for others to repent, we don't judge them as unworthy of our love.  God who is so great and awesome never believes that we are unworthy of a relationship with Him, no matter how lousy and unholy we are!  He never turns away from us, even though we turn away from Him.  This is the same love that we should give to others.

Mercy also means that while we wait, we hope for, we pray for, and if we can, we speak up for whatever is necessary to build a holy relationship.  For a short while, the relationship might not exist anymore, but that's not our preference.  If we've contributed to the break-up (for example, we've retaliated against evil deeds with our own sinful reactions), we need to seek forgiveness and reconciliation, doing whatever we can to restore what has been lost, but if the reconciliation is not equal and reciprocal, we continue to wait in brokenness and separation.

And mercy goes one step further.  We can all think of examples in the news, and maybe even in our own lives, of people who have done or said some very sinful things in the past.  Election year rhetoric and “hit pieces” by politicians are rife with these examples.  When sinners repent, God "forgets" the sins.  How can He forget?  Doesn't He know everything?  Do we have better memories than He does?  Of course not.  Forgetting simply means that He doesn't hold the past against us, and likewise we don't condemn others for what they did in the past and might do again. 

This doesn’t mean that we ignore the possibility of getting hurt again.  Rather it means that, with wisdom gained from the past, we give the repentant sinner the opportunity to act upon the changes he or she wants to make, and at the same time we make adjustments in our lives to protect ourselves from that person's particular vulnerabilities toward sin.  We stay out of harm's way while giving the other person room to grow.

Lord, “Do not remember against us the iniquities of our forefathers; let your compassion move quickly ahead of us, for we have been brought very low” (Psalm 79:8).