{"id":18990,"date":"2014-04-10T00:20:45","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T04:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=18990"},"modified":"2014-04-09T20:03:59","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T00:03:59","slug":"mercy-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/04\/10\/mercy-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercy to Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We have now entered the season of Lent. \u00a0For many Christians, Lent is taken as a time of preparation for the celebration of Easter where God miraculously redeemed mankind by resurrecting His Son from the dead. It is also a time to consider what Jesus said and did; and how we should be living in light of His Words. \u00a0\u271e \u2665<\/p>\n

During this season, here on the\u00a0Seeking Him<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0devotional blog, we have chosen to focus our devotionals on Jesus\u2019 instructions and admonition communicated in Matthew chapter 5\u2014the Beatitudes. \u00a0Jesus said, \u201cBlessed are\u2026\u201d and He went on to give instruction as to how to be \u201cblessed<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0To be \u2018blessed\u2019 is to \u2018be happy, or to be envied.\u2019 \u00a0 Truly for the Christian, we ARE blessed\u2014oh, how very blessed we are! \u00a0Those who observe our lives should clearly be able to tell that we ARE blessed\u2014and that we KNOW it! \u271e \u2665<\/p>\n

Please consider Jesus\u2019 instructions along with us. \u00a0We pray that our words will encourage you and spur you on to be prepare your hearts for the joyous celebration of His Resurrection! \u00a0\u271e \u2665<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>
\nMatthew 5:7 NIV<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Do you ever feel like you have been wronged by someone or by a group of people? \u00a0We are going through this right now. \u00a0It is a struggle to stay Christ-like in our situation. \u00a0We have an unfinished fence and an unwilling neighbor. \u00a0This neighbor is using part of our unfinished fence to build their own fence. \u00a0Yet, this neighbor is complaining about our unfinished fence and our backyard. \u00a0My husband works hard to maintain our backyard. \u00a0Also, our neighborhood is in the woods. \u00a0Critters abound but we get blamed. \u00a0It is hard to show restraint and not bow down to this neighbor\u2019s methods. \u00a0Instead of coming to us, this neighbor is creating havoc. \u00a0We are showing mercy trying to work with this neighbor, and we are not getting any mercy. \u00a0Surely, there is a better way (on the neighbor\u2019s end) to work this out.<\/p>\n

As Christians we are supposed to show mercy to those who do us wrong. We are supposed to be forgiving of them. We are supposed to look beyond the sin that is committed against us and be forgiving. Yet it is hard to be merciful when the wronging party does not want to be merciful back.<\/p>\n

Judge not, and ye shall not be judged:
\ncondemn not, and ye shall not be condemned:
\nforgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
\nLuke 6:37<\/p>\n

It is hard not to be judgmental of our neighbor at this time. \u00a0We are trying not condemn them. \u00a0It is hard to be forgiving of someone who won\u2019t even come see you face to face. \u00a0We are trying not to be judgmental. \u00a0We are trying to be merciful and look past human actions. \u00a0We are trying to do our part and be forgiving of our neighbor.<\/p>\n

God looks past our sins against Him and shows us mercy. \u00a0One day He will take us into His Kingdom and bless us with blessings that we can\u2019t even imagine at this time. \u00a0We will be given the ultimate mercy<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0There will be no more suffering, sickness, sadness, or woe. \u00a0There will be ultimate glory and love<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0~\u00a0\u00a0\u2665 \u00a0~ \u00a0*<\/span><\/h4>\n

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for Your mercy. \u00a0Also thank You for giving us the ability to show mercy and be forgiving. \u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have now entered the season of Lent. \u00a0For many Christians, Lent is taken as a time of preparation for the celebration of Easter where God miraculously redeemed mankind by resurrecting His Son from the dead. It is also a time to consider what Jesus said and did; and how we should be living in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[127,3367,1287,425,5784,3211,6022,1713,4531,680,6023,3174],"class_list":["post-18990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-beatitudes","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-jesus-speaking","tag-laura-pattillo","tag-luke-637","tag-matthew-57","tag-merciful","tag-mercy","tag-mercy-to-others","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4Wi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18990"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18992,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18990\/revisions\/18992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}