by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy<\/em>” (Matthew 5:7 NKJV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Obtaining mercy from God is a great blessing, but God intends to give\u00a0it only to those who believe it is worth giving to others. If we do not become merciful in our character, then God is not interested in giving His mercy to people who cannot appreciate it.<\/p>\n
What would it be like to live in a home where there is no mercy? What if there was only the expectation to do right, but no mercy for when you failed? Even those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for doing right, don’t always live up to the standard they are aiming to practice. What if there was no mercy for failures?<\/p>\n
What if God gave us only what we deserve with no mercy? We would have no chance of going to heaven. We need mercy and forgiveness, but if we recognize that we need it, are we compassionate enough to give <\/b>it to others? Do we hold them to a higher standard than we hold ourselves?<\/p>\n
The Lord will have a kingdom of people who desire mercy and who value giving it to others. Later, Jesus would talk about forgiveness (an extension of mercy) and tell His disciples that if you do not forgive others, “neither will the Father forgive you<\/em>.” We want God to show us mercy and not give us what we deserve. God wants us to value mercy for others.<\/p>\n
Imagine being in a kingdom that is blessed to obtain mercy and in which people are merciful in outlook toward each other and toward those outside the kingdom! That would be “blessedness.” Would you say that you are a merciful person? Do you feel for others, especially when it comes to failure and self-disappointment? Such people will obtain mercy, our greatest need in this world.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7 NKJV). Obtaining mercy from God is a great blessing, but God intends to give\u00a0it only to those who believe it is worth giving to others. If we do not become merciful in our character, then God is not interested in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[519],"class_list":["post-95885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-mercy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":83552,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-right-to-say-god-has-mercy-on-some\/","url_meta":{"origin":95885,"position":0},"title":"Is it right to say God has mercy on some?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Best regards, A few days ago, I came across this article, \"Are We Condemning Those Who Never Heard the Gospel?\" and I have been meditating on it. My observation and comment are not because I do not believe in the perfect righteousness of God, since I am a Christian,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60876,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/compassionate-and-merciful\/","url_meta":{"origin":95885,"position":1},"title":"Compassionate and Merciful","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford There are many different opinions about the point of the Book of Job. Some say that it proves that man will serve God for nothing. Others posit that it is about the incomprehensible nature of suffering. Personally, I am partial to the explanation provided in James\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95315,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/three-principles-for-living-well\/","url_meta":{"origin":95885,"position":2},"title":"Three Principles for Living Well","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?\" (Micah 6:8 NKJV). Do justly Be fair with others. Start at home with your wife,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23437,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/forgiveness-and-consequence\/","url_meta":{"origin":95885,"position":3},"title":"Forgiveness and Consequence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer One of the fallouts of what is being called \u201ccancel culture\u201d is a marked lack of mercy and forgiveness. If you\u2019ve ever said or done something that culture considers anathema, then you are done. Canceled. From this point on, you will have zero credibility with little to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/forgive-300x187.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":23275,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/confusing-mercy-with-justice\/","url_meta":{"origin":95885,"position":4},"title":"Confusing Mercy with Justice","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford The other Sunday, I was approached by one of the younger sisters at church. She had a couple of questions. They involved hypotheticals that many of us have encountered before. What about the tribesman in the Amazon jungle who never gets to hear about the gospel?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Balance-Scale-300x236.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":54520,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-much-obedience-does-the-lord-demand-of-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":95885,"position":5},"title":"How much obedience does the Lord demand of me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hey Jeffrey, I have a problem understanding the nature of obedience to God's laws. I read and hear that obedience is required for salvation, but no man (besides Jesus) has obeyed perfectly, so please help me understand the nature of the obedience required to please God and enter His\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}