Mercy

There is a line in a song we sing in church that says, "And if you judged my sin, I'd never stand again. But I see mercy in your hands." This line especially hits home after this weekend because I spent some time with people who were a big part of my life before Christ. My 10 year reunion was Saturday night, and I came away with such gratitude to God for how he has transformed my life. I don't mean to criticize or judge the people I was with, but after spending time with some of them, so many memories came flooding back of how I lived my life before God extended his mercy to me. I lived my life for me, and not at all for God. I even went to church and proclaimed to be a Christian, but that makes it all the worse because I was a hypocrite. This morning, I was reminded of what Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, which is what I will leave you with...

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." -Ephesians 2:1-9