All I can ever receive from God is mercy.  I can only receive what He gives in mercy, and all I have left to give away is mercy.

The law of reciprocation is a law of the fair, “Hey, that’s not fair.”  It’s not fair that I got hurt; it’s not fair that my parents divorced, it’s not fair that people really can stink.  When justice and equity guide us we shall be doomed to a life of pain, frustration, and disappointment, even if we are among the good, if such a thing is possible.

Jesus taught a deeper law, not that justice or equity is evil, but rather they fall short of the deeper truth.  The Law of Heaven, which is a place that works beyond our human sensibilities.  A place in which love and mercy confronts everything good or evil.  One mile, go two; one cheek, give the other; pray for friends, good, pray for enemies, even better.

You want justice?  God comes with grace. A place where the captives can be set free from shame,  guilt, despair, self-hatred, self-loathing, self-pity.

Mercy comes through the King, we receive His mercy in mercy, we receive forgiveness for ourselves by showing ourselves mercy, and we forgive others by mercy.  If we don’t learn the law of mercy as Christians we shall be stifled in our development.

Many of us look to Christ and his mercy and are able to receive it, what we find difficult is to show ourselves mercy, and others.  We feel justice should be our path after conversion, we hold ourselves and others to this principle.  And for good reason we wish to act and be right and others do the same, yet this is not the standard by which we should live.  Mercy is the means in which we follow Christ, receive Christ, are sanctified in Christ, and are made complete in Christ. We shall never graduate from mercy, in receiving it or giving it.

Christ rules in mercy, and we are children of mercy, called to give mercy away like the air we breathe.   We were drawn to repentance by the mercies of God, and we will draw others to Christ by the mercies of God. His mercies are new every morning.

All we could ever give away to anyone, even to those that have caused us the greatest amount of pain is mercy.  Mercy conquers our pain, a desire for justice only enflames our sorrows.  Mercy takes grief away from us and enables us to walk under the Law of Heaven.

To walk in the mercy of Heaven is life and peace–to show the mercy that Christ has shown us, to ourselves and to our neighbor.

Walk in mercy toward all and malice toward none and all that is left is the freedom of love.  To love is to be free, and it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Mercy triumphs over judgment; in mercy we find our freedom as children of God.

Mercy makes the yoke easy and the burden light.  To desire justice in us and for others becomes so very heavy, and oh, how Satan loves to make things heavy.

You wish to grow in justice that’s fine, walk in mercy and you’ll walk over justice all the way to a cross born in the heart of a merciful God.  Justice is a virtue for the perfect, but the only perfect one amongst us didn’t come in justice, but in mercy.