MEDITATE  ON THE LORD’S MERCY!

It is tender mercy, with a gentle, loving, touch, He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. He is gracious in the manner of His mercy as in the matter of it. It is great mercy. There is nothing little in God; His mercy is like Himself – it is infinite. You cannot measure it. His mercy is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners, after great lengths of time, and then gives great favors and great privileges, and raises us up to great enjoyment in the great heaven of the great God.

It is underserved mercy, as indeed all true mercy must be, for deserved mercy is only a misnomer for justice. There was no right on the sinner’s part to the kind consideration of the Most High; had the rebel been doomed at once to eternal fire he would have richly merited the doom, and if delivered from wrath, sovereign love alone has found a cause, for there was non in the sinner himself. It is rich mercy. Some things are great, but have little efficacy in them, but this mercy is a cordial to your drooping spirits; a golden ointment to your bleeding wounds; a heavenly bandage to your broken bones; a royal chariot for your weary feet; a bosom of love for your trembling heart.

It is manifold mercy. As John Bunyan says, “All the flowers of God’s garden are double.” There is no single mercy. You may think you have but one mercy, but you shall find it to be a whole cluster of mercies. It is abounding mercy. Millions have received it, yet far from it being exhausted; it is as fresh, as full, and as free as ever. It is unfailing mercy. It will never leave thee.

If mercy be thy friend, mercy will be with thee in temptation to keep thee from yielding; with thee in trouble to prevent thee from sinking; with thee living to be the light and life of thy countenance; and with thee dying to be the joy of thy soul when earthly comfort is ebbing fast.

HIS FIXED PURPOSE IS NOT DESTRUCTION, BUT INSTRUCTION!

From the Lord’s words we learn that there is a limit to sickness. Here is an “unto” within which its ultimate end is restrained, and beyond which it cannot go. Lazarus – “His sickness is not unto death.” John 11:4. Lazarus might pass through death, but death was not to be the ultimatum of his sickness. I know this from personal experience, for after lying in a “diabetic coma” for six days and six nights, and against all the possibilities of “medical science,” I too, woke up on the 7^th day. I fell into a diabetic coma in Los Angeles on November 6^th 1996 and woke up from the coma on November 13^th 1996, even though the doctors report on the third day read; “He will never awake!”

In all sickness, the Lord said to the waves of pain, “Hitherto shall ye go, but no further.” His fixed purpose is not the destruction, but the instruction of His people. Wisdom hangs up the thermometer at the furnace mouth, and regulates the heat. The limit is encouragingly comprehensive. The God of Providence has limited the time, manner, intensity, repetition, and effects of all sickness; each throb is decreed, each sleepless hour predestinated, each relapse ordained, each depression of spirit foreknown, and each sanctifying result eternally purposed. Nothing great or small escapes the ordaining hand of Him who numbered the hairs on our heads.

The limit is wisely adjusted to our strength, to the end designed, and to grace apportioned Affliction comes not at haphazard – the weight of every stroke of the rod is accurately measured. He who made no mistakes in balancing the clouds and meting out the heaven, commits no errors in measuring out the ingredients which compose the medicine of souls. We cannot suffer too much nor be relieved too late!

The limit is tenderly appointed. The knife of the heavenly Surgeon never cuts deeper than is absolutely necessary. “He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” A mother’s heart cries, “Spare my child”; but no mother is more compassionate than our gracious God. When we consider how hard-mouthed we are, it is a wonder that we are not driven with a sharper bit. THE THOUGHT IS FULL OF CONSOLATION, THAT HE WHO HAS FIXED THE BOUNDS OF OUR HABITATION, HAS ALSO FIXED THE BOUNDS OF OUR TRIBULATION.