In order to awaken self-abasement and gratitude I should consider both what I deserve, and what blessings I have in Christ.
If the righteous Lord were to deal with me according to my deserving, I would at this moment be under the rack of excruciating pain; or under the pressure of most abject poverty thus experiencing the foretaste of eternal woe.
If thus dealt with in strictest justice, Death would receive his commission to hurl my affrighted soul into the gulf of endless misery, there to remain an everlasting monument of the vengeance of a holy God!
All short of this is mercy!
Do I enjoy a portion of health?
It is all mercy!
Am I undergoing a sanctified affliction?
It is all mercy!
Do I partake of the bounties of Providence?
It is all mercy!
Do I possess affectionate friends?
It is all mercy!
Do I experience the love of God in Christ, pardoning my sins, and purifying my heart? Oh! this is mercy beyond the power of language to praise or to express!
Rejoice in such a Savior, who mercifully snatched you as a brand out of the burning!
[Thomas Reade]
Ephesians 2:4-5 ... But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Titus 3:5 ... Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
1 Peter 1:3 ... Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ❤
