Friday, November 29, 2019

Psalms 103:8-12 -- On Mercy

"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
Psalms 103:8-12


I really like the "he hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities" part.  That's an important thing to keep in mind... that God is merciful to us.  He doesn't ever reward us as we deserve, but is gentle and patient, giving us room to change and grow.  I was recently reading about Lamoni and also Lamoni's father in the Book of Mormon, and that whole story is one of amazing humility... wanting to know God enough that they were willing to leave their sins and bad habits and even their kingdoms behind. 

I think that pride gets in our way so often: in the way that we think about God, in the way that we think about ourselves and our sins, and in the way that we think about other people.  God is trying to teach us constantly, but when we think that we are above believing in God, or we think that we know better than he does, or we think that we are better than other people... these all are walls that we build between ourselves and God... essentially between ourselves and salvation.

The Lord says this to "such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them" (verse 18), so today, let's remember to keep our covenants with the Lord, and to follow his commandments, so that we can partake of his mercy. :)

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