True Meaning of God’s Mercy

God’s Mercy is always limitless in our life. Many people imagine God as a mean fellow sitting up in Heaven with a big flyswatter. They think the minute they make a mistake, He’s going to swat them. That’s not what the Bible says!

Psalm 145:8–9 tells us that God is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy—to all people. In these verses, the words compassion and mercy are translated from the same Hebrew word. They mean the same thing. In other words, to be merciful means to be full of compassion. And that’s God’s character.

Now, there are quite a few people who think of God’s mercy only in relation to salvation for sinners. Thank God, His mercy is extended to sinners. Second Corinthians 1:3 says God is the Father of “mercies”—plural. We see this again in Psalm 106:7: “They [the Israelites] remembered not the MULTITUDE of thy [God’s] mercies.”

God’s Compassion is Limitless

What were the “multitude” of mercies God showed to the children of Israel? For one thing, God’s mercies were shown in the wonders and miracles He performed in delivering them out of Egypt where they had been held captive. The psalmist called those wonders God’s mercies. And those mercies encompass all the Lord’s provisions—including healing.

In Scriptures when Jesus was on earth, He didn’t just heal to prove His deity. Scripture says that He healed because of His compassion, or mercy.
I think this truth has really been hidden from the Church today.

But when our faith is just as strong in God’s mercy of healing as it is in His mercy of forgiveness, we’ll be healed just as easily as we were forgiven.
Let’s look at a few passages of Scripture that show the compassion—the mercy—of the Lord in regard to healing.

MARK 1:40–41
40 And there came a leper to him [Jesus], beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
41 And Jesus, MOVED WITH COMPASSION [or mercy], put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.

According to dictionary definitions, to have compassion is to love tenderly, to pity, to show mercy, and to be full of eager yearning. That means that Jesus, full of tender love, pity, and an eager yearning to help and bless, laid His hands on this leper and healed him. Hallelujah!

Throughout the Gospels, we see again and again how Jesus was moved with compassion toward suffering humanity. Matthew 14:14 says, “Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, AND WAS MOVED WITH COMPASSION toward them, and he healed their sick.”

It’s beyond our understanding.

In Mark chapter 5 we find the story of the madman of Gadara. Jesus cast the demons out of him and the man was delivered. He later told the man, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, AND HATH HAD COMPASSION on thee” (Mark 5:19).

Jesus was plenteous in mercy—in compassion—to all who needed healing.
Jesus is just as compassionate, loving, and merciful now as He was in the Bible. Begin to see healing as a mercy of God. Don’t try to base obtaining healing on works—or on anything else but your faith in His mercy.

When you do that, you will see His healing mercy manifest in your life.
You can receive whatever it is you need from your Heavenly Father, because God is the Father of mercies!