Mercy and Opinions

Another excerpt from my prayer journal during March of 2009.  God is so good, to give us understanding when we ask, to teach, to love.  He is a good and loving Father!  He even puts up with my sarcasm, which tends to bleed through occasionally.

We were asked to journal on John 5:41-47 in our prayer group.

As for human approval, this means nothing to me.  Besides, I know you too well; you  have no love of God in you.  I have come in the name of my Father and you refuse to accept me.  If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.

How can you believe, since you look to one another for approval and are not concerned with the approval that comes from the one God?

I praise you and thank you Lord.  All glory and praise to You!  I praise you Holy Spirit, giver of all love and gifts from God!  I am very guilty of this.  I have lived my whole life out of the opinions of others.  Have mercy on me.  I am sorry.  It is a bondage to say the least, a horrible bondage to live this way.  I still suffer from the perceived opinions of others.  Why?  Self love, and  because you say we have to love everyone, even those that have hurt us deeply.  We are all supposed to get along.  We aren't supposed to judge, we're supposed to be peacemakers.  We're supposed to turn the other cheek.  We aren't supposed to judge anything...we're supposed to be kind and gentle. We are supposed to overlook every fault, no matter how grave.  We're supposed to tolerate all sin and have compassion on evil. We have to tolerate blasphemy because it's freedom of speech.  In order to live this way, to never hurt another soul-we become slaves to them.  We have to worry about their opinions because we are their slaves, we must be pleasing to them.  To upset others and lose their good opinion would mean we were bad, un-Christian. It would upset the "peace."  Truth does not matter, because truth hurts people and that is not love.  Even though I know the truth, it can't be a part of it because it's bad and gets people upset and angry, so I have to hide it to be meek and humble. Humility is being used here to protect self.  Granted Lord, we are miserable-playing these roles and allowing the opinion of others to be our gods-but isn't that what being a Christian means?  It does in this day.  Peace at all costs.  We don't know You, we don't see You, we don't depend on You for our happiness.  Our happiness is supposed to be derived from being pleasing to others. We are so miserable, but you understand because it's what You asked of us, right?

Father, what has happened and what have we become?  Have mercy!  Justice sets things in order-we need You!

Dear Child of Mine,


Your sarcasm speaks much truth about the state of the world today.  I see what has happened to my children.  As your Father, I will set things in order.  What is needed is love-love rooted in truth. 

Many are presuming upon My mercy at this time.  Woe to those who presume upon it to save them from speaking truth! My mercy is for those who turn to Me in repentance after knowing from hearing the truth.  My mercy is not to save you from being uncomfortable.  

Mercy is meaningless to those who have no realization of sin.  What would they be in need of mercy for?  

My mercy in this age is being taken advantage of.  My ways are not your ways.  A sinner must know they are in need of mercy in order to obtain it.  I do not oppose free will.  I do not force my mercy upon anyone.  My mercy is made available to those who ask for it, and desire it, in order to come back to Me.  Mercy isn't meant to maintain a soul in sin and darkness.  You misunderstand.  My love sustains all-the sinners and the just alike.  My love is unconditional and everlasting.  I can love you without you returning my love, or desiring my love.  I am Love, there is no other way!  My mercy, however, is for the asking.  You do not have to ask me to love you, mercy though must be asked for-mercy must be desired. 

This made perfect sense!  At Mass, we pray "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us."  We don't ask for love, we ask for mercy.  It is necessary.  The wisdom of the Mass never ceases to amaze me.  Really.  Then, "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace."  Peace comes when mercy is asked for and received!  We really do have to know our sinfulness in order to know our need of mercy.

We can pray for God to be merciful to those we see stuck in sin....but it really rests on them asking for it and being able to receive it when the time comes.  There will always be those, who in their pride, will refuse to ask. Our prayer should be that they recognize their need of mercy.  This is a time of great mercy...the greatest.  But have we used it to absolve ourselves from speaking the truth about sin?  Do we judge the situation as hopeless and remain silent and quietly count on "mercy" to get the job done?  We need to ponder this in our prayer, and ask the Holy Spirit for courage....courage to speak the truth with love.

I received this almost a year ago, but this morning opened my bible to Romans, 6:16-18:

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted.  Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.