Reading: Psalm 9:13-20
We serve a God of both justice and mercy. These things wouldn't seem likely to go hand and hand, but God is a God of impossibility. We see an example of what God can do here when David cries out to God to rescue him from his enemies. He begs for mercy from God, that He may seek justice from his enemies. Here we see that God is able to do both of these things. This is a lot of what He did when His Son went to the cross for us. We needed to serve our punishment for our sin (justice), but God paid the price Himself (mercy). We actually can see this theme weaved all throughout the Bible. The amazing thing about God is that He's full of Justice and Mercy, Truth and Grace, and a combination of other things you wouldn't picture together. He is just God.
What is a time in your life you were seeking both justice and mercy, like David?
What other attributes of God have you found amazing?
Reading: Matthew 12:1-21
We see yet another example of an unlikely combination of God come out here. One of the greatest commandments is the keep the Sabbath Day holy. And we also have read that on the seventh day of creating, God rested. Here we see Jesus get approached a couple times because His disciples were caught working on the Sabbath Day, and Jesus gets questioned for healing a man. Now, many of us will heed this Sabbath Day rule by resting and taking a break from working. In fact, it is good for us. Yet Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are way off here. They could care less for the disciples and Jesus resting for their own good. They want a way to make Jesus wrong. Jesus doesn't pressure us with all of these rules in life. He doesn't put the burden of rules on our shoulders and make it near impossible to do right by Him.
Sometimes life will be daunting. For me, Sunday mornings can be one of the most daunting and even frustrating days of the week. Though I find this unfair at times, I know I'm serving and doing what I need to do to get the job done for the sake of the service. Should I not be working and say "no" now and then...? Yep. But we know that Jesus won't hold it over our heads if we do right by Him. Jesus lived in a ministry that was full of both truth and grace. He approached teaching this way and ministry this way. Jesus kept the truth in His words and stood strongly by them. But when grace was needed (like in the case of feeding the disciples and healing the man) Jesus did that as well, and used truth to back Him up.
If we just use this truth and grace approach to church and to reaching out to people, we could truly do what Jesus did.
When have you felt the need to express grace when others thought it was wrong?
When have you had to stand up for truth, when others felt like being lenient was the right approach?
Reading: Genesis 31:1-55
There is a lot of craziness about this family. When you read Jacob's story and see how hard and unfair Laban was to him throughout the years though, you can't help but feel bad for the guy. Jacob, however, isn't fully innocent either, as his leaving was probably not done in the right way. It was quite unfair of Jacob to take Laban's daughters and grand kids and leave. Not to mention the flocks he manipulated to be his. But we see God again, show mercy to both of these deceivers. Though God told Jacob to run away and flee back to his original land, He still allows Laban to see his family, though with a stern warning. We again see justice and mercy here from God.
We also see God show quite a bit of mercy to the family, considering Rachel stealing idols from her father and lying about hiding them. Maybe she gets that from her dad and Jacob. But God upholds the promise He made with Abraham years ago, and prospers the family line, no matter how deceptive they've become. We have a God of promises and mercy, yet will be stern.
When have you experienced a time in life that seemed just unfair and hard?
Have you ever deceived someone to get your own way? How did that go?
God is quite a marvelous God. Full of justice and mercy, truth and grace, and many other attributes that can both keep you on your feet and bring you to your knees. His ways are always perfect and 100 percent.
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