Gracious And Compassionate Defines Our God

"The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.  The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works."

Psalm 145:8-9

The only thing you have ever deserved in this life is condemnation… The sooner you grasp this, the sooner you can open the door to experiencing God’s love and desires for your life… The bible records in Paul’s letter to the church of Ephesus in the second chapter the foundation by which we have life and success, in this passage, Paul proclaims, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” No matter what you do on this earth, no matter how much you try to live peacefully in this life, you can only be saved and find you name in the book of life by the grace of God… Understand that Grace is something that you cannot obtain nor do you deserve… It is a gift based on a foundation of live which allows the giver to look beyond faults to fulfill needs… The grace that Jesus bestowed from the cross allowed Him to look beyond the ugly makeup that we presented before Him and fulfill the needs that we had which was the payment of sin’s ransom… Take note today that you are only here because of God’s grace and mercy… There are so many people today who act as if they never knew sin, the act as if God didn’t die for them because they are perfect; however, it is in the passage taken from the 145^th psalm that we find the love of God abounding beyond our valueless thoughts and silhouettes… “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion…” You didn’t deserve to wake up this morning, you didn’t deserve to sleep peacefully last night; however, the compassion of God moved on your behalf and despite how ugly your life may be, He still loves you and can’t just turn His back on you… This is why the Psalmist goes on to say that the Lord is “slow to anger…” If God really showed the full extent of His anger toward us we would be wiped from the face of the is earth… See often times we confuse discipline with anger… Anger is a fury, rage or resentment; God distills His anger and continues to discipline us which means that He desires to redirect our paths instead of annihilating us from the face of the earth… We all face trials and tribulations, but I am of the faith that as bad as things may appear to be; they can always be worse… You may be going through a storm right now, but I want you to know that a storm is constantly in motion… A storm is always moving and this is good news today because you need to realize that it will never become static and therefore sunshine is sure to follow… When you are facing a hard time, embrace it, learn from it and trust God that He doesn’t make mistakes… In this world that we live in, I find so many people who hare prepared to throw there hands in the air and become disgusted with God when things don’t go as they planned… When I go through these kind of times, I take note of Paul’s letter to the church of Rome and how in the 8^th chapter, verse 28 he said, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Your storm will work for your God, you may feel like you don’t deserve to go through it, but we all know that “The Lord is gracious…” It is because of Him that we even have life, you deserved far worse than you may be currently experiencing… Your very life is a gift that you should not have received; however we find in this passage today that “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works…” No matter how many times you mess up, make a mistake or go down the wrong path you can be sure that God is going to continue to love you, continue to show compassion toward you and continue to open up doors to redirect your life according to His purpose… The doors open in your life may not be the doors that you expected, but I challenge you today to walk through them in faith knowing that God has given you another chance and is good to all… “His tender mercies are all over His works…” Despite what you are dealing with right now, I want you to be encouraged today and know  that God has His hand all over your life… He has begun a good work in you and will completed until the day of Christ return… The masterpiece that He designed you to be is taking shape right now; however, no masterpiece looks like the end results until all the brush strokes are completed…

BE BLESSED!!!