To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 1:3 “. . . the Father of mercies . . .”

Jesus: The Bible calls it “a name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9).  The name means “Jehovah is salvation.”  Jehovah, an Old Testament name for God the Father, but here applied to the Son, for He indeed is the way of salvation through the cross.  Not only is Jesus a name above every name, but any other name for God is a name above every name, as well. One example of this is found in one of the names for God given in the verse above.  How could any name surpass such a name in its significance: “the Father of mercies”?  This name brings to mind the tax collector to whom Jesus pointed in Luke 18:13: “the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”  And then Jesus said “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.”  In other words, this man, who was indeed a sinner, when he humbled himself and cried out for mercy, received it. He was made just before a just and holy God.  And why was that?  Because he deserved it?  Absolutely not!  He received mercy because he went to the Father of mercies.  That’s what God is: merciful. 

The Bible is full of references to this.  One such place is Psalm 136, where 26 times it says “His mercy endures forever.”  For me, personally, it is one of the most wonderful characteristics of God. You see, I was a person who, despite my knowledge of God, strayed far from Him at one period of my life. I can understand a person who lives a life of sin when they don’t know God. They are just acting in a manner entirely consistent with their true nature. However, when a person knows the truth, taught about it from a child like I was, to wander from God is a despicable thing. There’s no excuse, and in a time of crisis in my life, that fact dawned on me in a very clear way.  I was destitute and felt totally unworthy of the love of God.  I had wandered so far from Him that I wasn’t sure if I knew the way back, and I so despised myself in my own eyes that I couldn’t imagine anything but judgment from the God I had spurned. But then the Father of mercies reached down and lifted me up.  He opened my eyes to the fact that He loved me in spite of my sin.  I was overwhelmed by this truth when it dawned on me, and everything changed.  Since that moment, every day my heart is filled with gratitude for His mercy.  It motivates me with a love for God. It motivates me with a passion because I could never do enough for Him. No matter how much I try or how much I can ever do, how can I ever repay a God Who, in spite of my own ungodliness, had sent His own Son to die for me? How can I ever repay a God who had shown me such patience – for years – and shown me grace and mercy despite my sin? How can I ever repay a God who has blessed my life with a wonderful wife, incredible children, a wonderful job, and Who has met my every need when I had for years treated Him with contempt?  Surely God has been incredibly merciful to me, a sinner, and it is my hope that I can somehow communicate the love and mercy of God to anyone who will hear. 

You see, God is no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11). The very same incredible mercy He has poured into my life He will pour into yours if you will but turn to Him and ask for it.  We all need it. We all are hopeless without it.  But we all need to go to the one and only source from which we will ever acquire it – to the Father of mercies Who loved us and gave Himself for us, in spite of our sin.  How wonderful is a love like that?! 

Jesus: surely, it’s a name above every name. “The Father of mercies”: what name could ever be higher than that? But that’s exactly what this patient and loving God has told us about Himself, for He longs to show mercy to all who will believe.