Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Psalm 23:6

Grace and Mercy – The Goodness Twins.

They are found together in scripture and we often mention them together in prayer.

But, have you noticed we are far more likely to discuss grace in our conversations and in our writings? We are just more comfortable with talking about, and even receiving, grace.

Grace — God’s gift of goodness toward us that we did not/could not earn; His unmerited favor.

We love gifts, especially those we don’t have to do anything to receive. It’s easy to accept God’s gift of grace. We just hold out our hands and trust that His goodness will be there.

Yet, we willingly overlook the very reasons why we don’t deserve His gifts — our sins.

By sweeping our sins under the rug of our thoughts, we separate grace from it’s twin, mercy.

Mercy — God’s compassionate forgiveness of the consequences of our actions that should rightfully occur;

His willingness to overlook our shortcomings and disobedience.

Mercy is not as fun to talk about because in doing so we have to acknowledge the sin that was forgiven to receive the mercy.

God already knows the sin and He extends His mercy every day.

[His mercies] are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:23

When we acknowledge the ways we don’t exactly measure up, we are honest about our faith walk and we open dialogue with others about God’s gracious love and His merciful forgiveness.

Don’t separate God’s goodness twins; you can’t have His gift of life (grace) without His forgiveness of sin (mercy).

For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,

And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

Psalm 86:5

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This post is part of Suzanne Eller‘s #LiveFree Thursday