I wasn’t looking for what was found although I was looking for something I couldn’t quite pinpoint. The dynamic, pliable, and resourceful book that is the Bible contains word representations of the heart, mind, and nature of its author, Yahweh. Without knowing what I needed but certainly knowing that I wanted something, I went searching, and it was my experience with Ephesians 2:4 & 7 that inspired today’s article.
But God who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us.
(Ephesians 2:4)
Based on the things swirling around in my mind for the past few weeks that verse wasn’t supposed to do much for me. It’s a familiar enough passage, and I know the principle all too well. It’s my and all believers’ experience of God moving us from death and darkness into light and life through our belief in Jesus’ sacrifice. Verses 1 and 5 of that chapter say that we who were dead in trespasses and sins were made alive. That’s because of God’s love for us, because of His great mercy, as verse 2 says.
Grace, the foundation of the Christian faith is more than a character trait of God it is embodied in the person (full man, full God) of Jesus (John 1:14). Though I may not have known what I was looking for, it wasn’t reassurance about my newness in Christ effected through the grace of God, so that neither I, nor any man/woman could boast that they worked for or earned it (verses 8 & 9).
Though our eternal standing by God’s grace is worthy of mention daily, it wasn’t my immediate need, so having sped through verses 1 to 3, my eyes slowed on, and my mind enlarged the words “rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he loved us”.
Before this present time and all of its woes, God was so merciful and so full of love for us, that He extended his mercy (saving us from what we deserved) and gave us His grace (what we needed but couldn’t earn), so that we could be ‘made alive’, or plainly said, have true and eternal life. If God was merciful and full of grace before we came on the scene physically, and before we needed Him for our present circumstances, wouldn’t He still show up as the same, unchanging, merciful, and loving God in whatever we are dealing with?
He is rich in mercy because of the great love He has for us. Not ordinary and not minuscule but GREAT. If using just the word rich to describe his mercy, seemed insufficient, verse 7 went a notch above saying, “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”.
How exciting is it to know that God has no resource constraint or limitation on his mercy, grace, love, and kindness toward us. He is both rich and exceedingly rich, yet our minds can’t fully capture its boundlessness. Can you though? Can you imagine anything so vile or shameful that the richness of God’s mercy, grace, love, and kindness can’t reach?
I didn’t need the basics of my standing with God through Christ Jesus, but I certainly needed the reminder that before my name was recorded in my country’s citizenship database, God was rich and exceedingly rich in mercy, grace, love, and kindness to me, way back when. I am now living in the ‘ages to come’ that the writer of Ephesians was referencing. Today, I can use the salvation story to remind me that God never stops being who He is and will never run out because His resources are infinite.
Remember the widow who fed the Prophet Elijah from the last of her oil and flour, that somehow never ran out? Imagine her pouring from the flask of oil, over and over again, and seeing it pouring out but when she turns it upright the same amount is still in the flask!
Sometimes the enemy can try to trick us and make us feel like God is withholding his love, grace, mercy, and kindness from us, but that’s never the case. If He gave it to you, before you were you, why would He now withhold it? He can’t! In fact, I prefer to believe that with God, my pouring setting is always in the “on” position. I prefer to believe that God was excited to finally bring me into this earth, though He knew me before the earth itself was created. In my imagination, He was like a mother seeing her newborn baby for the first time and will never stop pouring all of His Everything on me!
He loves me too much, knew me before any other being could know me, and eagerly, dearly, immensely, and tenderly loves me every day. The same is true for you!
Even my limited human brain knows that God wouldn’t do all of that for me before I arrived on this side of heaven to then be stingy. It’s not His nature.
I reconsidered the many things that were swirling around in my mind and was pleased. He is rich, more than rich; He is exceedingly rich and will provide all the mercy, grace, love, and kindness that we will ever need.
Love Ya!
Krystal Baynes-Hoseinee
SUBSCRIBE to receive notifications of new posts.
FOLLOW me on:
Facebook www.facebook.com/imaniinspirational &
Instagram www.instagram.com/imani_blog2020
My devotional, "My Favourite Scriptures" can be ordered here on the site under the 'Devotional' tab and also on Amazon.
Very inspiring. Thanks for this