Paint Party Friday: Learn From Me!

"I desire MERCY, not sacrifice."

Matthew 12:7

It's hard to balance disciplining and mercy

when it comes to children, employees,

students, people who've done wrong,

because we always want to teach a

lesson about consequences of their actions.

If they make a mistake, or are dishonest,

we want to mete out a justifiable punishment.

I sometimes fear if I'm too soft,

they won't learn the lesson 

and they'll do it again.

But how about God?

 "The wages of sin is death," (Romans 6:3)

shows death is what we deserve

for sinning!

And yet the verse continues,

"but the gift of God is eternal life

in Christ Jesus our Lord."

That is pure mercy, pure grace,

and pure sacrifice for us!

And so when deciding on the consequence,

it is always best to temper it with mercy,

to bear witness to the truth of

God's own love and unbelievable mercy!

"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, 

and I will give you rest. 

Take my yoke upon you and LEARN from me... 

And you will find rest for yourselves..." Matthew 11:28-30

Sometimes I picture God 

shaking His head in frustration. 

He has already given us His 'instruction manual', 

how to live so that we will have peace 

in the midst of confusion, 

joy in spite of sadness and pain, 

wholeness and strength 

in spite of circumstances around us 

 trying to destroy what we have. 

Jesus says LEARN from me. 

Listen to me, follow me. 

Instead we want to live it, "My way!"

Imagine if we didn't know how to drive 

and we bought a really nice car and 

didn't read the manual that the 

manufacturers carefully put together 

so that the car would run at its optimum. 

Could we get far using it? Through trial and error?

That's what we do with our lives when we 

don't read our instruction manual, the Bible! 

I think when we get to Heaven and see 

our 'manufacturer' face to face and talk to Him, 

we're going to say, "If only I took You more seriously! 

It would have saved me a lot of pain and frustration!"

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Patsy