I remember going to the priest, one time as a teenager and confessing to him how I just couldn’t stand certain people and how I would get so irritated and annoyed by them. His response though shocking has resonated with me ever since as he uttered these words; “have you ever considered that others may find you irritating and annoying as well?” I was speechless…and you know that’s hard for me to do!! You may laugh, but all too often without even knowing or even intending we act as though we’re the greatest gift to society and not only that, we act as people’s holy spirit, and we expect them to “conform to ourselves.” We’re naturally bent to please ourselves. As women, we not only are good at making it all revolve around us, at times, but with our friend visiting every month you could be a victim of being at the wrong place at the wrong time…
When we c
onsider all the relationships we come in contact with in our work place, at school, in our family, our extended family, our church family, our hobbies, we can get caught up in the agendas and logistics of it all and lose sight of the goal in our relationships. The goal is to reflect God at work in us. Unfortunately, the more I talk to women in particular, the more I hear how there’s a lack of tolerance for others, how loneliness is a real thing, and without a doubt how much they desire for better functioning relationships. We want mature relationships without the growing pains.
So, for time sake I won’t explore the million reasons why relationships are hard, though you know that at the heart of the matter is our sin of self-centerness.
But, what can we do to reflect Christ likeness in our relationships? Consider mercy. Mercy is like humility, we all desire it; we read books, we talk about it, we challenge others to do that (like me right now), but we wish talking and reading all about it would equal practicing them. But why do we find it so hard to practice mercy? Paul Tripp & Tim Lane put it this way, in their book:
“We want to think of ourselves as fundamentally different from the people who need mercy when, in fact, we are the same. We too are flawed people; we too need mercy every day of our lives. But it is more comfortable to think of ourselves as righteous and strong while others are needy and weak. So, when it comes to mercy, we are double-minded. We’d rather give mercy than need it, but even then, we wish the giving wasn’t so costly—and revealing.”
Not showing mercy reveals our love of other things rather than God and the things of God. But we’ve been treated with immeasurable amount of mercy from our Heavenly Father. Those of us saved by the blood of Christ know mercy wasn’t earned or deserved—it was a gift. And none of us would want God to stop showing us mercy. Showing mercy to others not only will change your relationships—but it will change you.
I’ll finish up on Thursday with some practical applications on how to show mercy to others.
So let’s get out there and show mercy to others today.
When we c
onsider all the relationships we come in contact with in our work place, at school, in our family, our extended family, our church family, our hobbies, we can get caught up in the agendas and logistics of it all and lose sight of the goal in our relationships. The goal is to reflect God at work in us. Unfortunately, the more I talk to women in particular, the more I hear how there’s a lack of tolerance for others, how loneliness is a real thing, and without a doubt how much they desire for better functioning relationships. We want mature relationships without the growing pains.So, for time sake I won’t explore the million reasons why relationships are hard, though you know that at the heart of the matter is our sin of self-centerness.
But, what can we do to reflect Christ likeness in our relationships? Consider mercy. Mercy is like humility, we all desire it; we read books, we talk about it, we challenge others to do that (like me right now), but we wish talking and reading all about it would equal practicing them. But why do we find it so hard to practice mercy? Paul Tripp & Tim Lane put it this way, in their book:
“We want to think of ourselves as fundamentally different from the people who need mercy when, in fact, we are the same. We too are flawed people; we too need mercy every day of our lives. But it is more comfortable to think of ourselves as righteous and strong while others are needy and weak. So, when it comes to mercy, we are double-minded. We’d rather give mercy than need it, but even then, we wish the giving wasn’t so costly—and revealing.”
Not showing mercy reveals our love of other things rather than God and the things of God. But we’ve been treated with immeasurable amount of mercy from our Heavenly Father. Those of us saved by the blood of Christ know mercy wasn’t earned or deserved—it was a gift. And none of us would want God to stop showing us mercy. Showing mercy to others not only will change your relationships—but it will change you.
I’ll finish up on Thursday with some practical applications on how to show mercy to others.
So let’s get out there and show mercy to others today.
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