‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness’.[i]
Do you, like me, know the God of compassion? The Bible assures us that His mercy is extended to all of us because of His love for us. Have you experienced it?
One of the mature students I met, Jenny, had a disability which affected her ability to walk. She used crutches to get around but kept up with her fellow students in more ways than one. Jenny knew what it meant to trust God and she had come to Bible college to find out more about the Lord who loved her. She wanted to pursue a course to prepare her for Christian service. On meeting her, you would be welcomed with a smile that would light up the room around you.
Many might ask, why? Why had God not prevented her disability? Thinking of the range of activities she was unable to do, why believe in a God who had allowed it and deprived her of so much that life had to offer?
Jenny’s approach to life was because she had peace with God. She had asked Him to forgive her of her sins – all the wrong things she has done. She had committed her life to Him, and He had made her a new creature, not physically but spiritually. This is possible because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, so that the sin and guilt of the whole world could be dealt with,[ii] and God’s mercy and grace could be extended to us.[iii] Now there is no fear or mistrust that rules in Jenny’s relationship with God, because she has experienced His mercy and love towards her. This is the kind of relationship that we can have with God too, if we will receive of the mercy and grace He offers to us so abundantly.
Jenny could have doubted God, because He had not prevented her disability; she could have lost hope for the future, because of the range of activities she had been unable to do, but, with Jenny, the glass was not half empty – it was half full. There was always more she felt she could achieve, and more that was within her reach because of the God whom she knows gives her daily courage to believe and has the compassion to provide for her in her disability.