Friday, March 10, 2023

Fri.-Sabbath, 3/10-12/23 Devotion

Bless God—it is almost Sunday! We *get* to go back to church. Here is Thomas Watson, on the subject of God's Mercy, from his, "A Body of Divinity" book. . . .

"Mercy coming to us in a covenant is sweetest. It was mercy that God would give Israel rain, and bread to the full, and peace, and victory over their ene-mies, (Lev. 26:4-6); but it was a greater mercy that God would be their God, (v. 12). To have health is a mercy, but to have Christ and salvation is a great-er mercy.

“ . . . Because God has shown mercy, He is more ready still to show mercy. His mercy in election makes Him justify, adopt, and glorify; one act of mercy engages God to more. A parent's love to his child makes him always giving.

"All the mercy in the creature is derived from God, and is but a drop of this ocean. God is called, 'The Father of mercies,' because He begets all the mercies in the world, (2 Cor. 1:3). If God has put any kindness into the crea-ture, how much kindness is in Him who is the Father of mercy?!

"As God's mercy makes the saints happy, so it should make them humble. Mercy is not the fruit of our goodness, but the fruit of God's goodness. Mercy is a gift that God bestows. They have no cause to be proud that live upon the gift of God's mercy. 'If I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head,' (Job 10:15). 'll my righteousness is the effect of God's mercy, therefore I will be humble and will not lift up my head.’ "