And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not (Malachi 3:15-18).

The Lord hears when we talk to one another. He knows those who have respect and honor for Him. And He knows those who don’t.

You can be in either group. We can be in the first group who has words that are stout against God. Or, we can be in the second group who fears God and speaks often about His goodness and His mercy. God told Israel in Exodus 19:5 if they would obey His voice and keep His covenant, they would be His peculiar treasure, or His special treasure, above all others in the earth. Here He refers to them as jewels. We think of treasure as gold and jewels. God’s treasure is an obedient people. He paves His streets with gold, but He is able to achieve His dream for His family with a people who know and obey Him. You can be that treasure to Him. It is your choice.

You have to be willing and obedient in order to walk in victory (Isaiah 1:19). If you are just talking a good game, but not doing the Word, you are not being willing and obedient. You have to be willing and obedient to walk in the blessing of God.

Isaiah 3 shows us the contrast between the righteous and the wicked. (Remember, God does not condemn the righteous with the wicked. He appeared to the righteous Lot and got him out of Sodom and Gomorrah.)

“Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him” (Isaiah 3:10-11).

God makes a difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the obedient and the disobedient. He is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), but He is a respecter of obedience and faith. He makes a difference between those who obey Him and those who do not.

The whole world could be in trouble and without any resources or abilities, while the Church—if we are obedient to God—would have plenty. Psalm 91:7 says, “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.”

Gloria Copeland

God has always had to deal with a disobedient people. That has been His reward for His goodness and His mercy. He called out to generation after generation in love and mercy:

…Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice (Jeremiah 11:6-7).

“I earnestly protested and pleaded with the fathers. I rose up early and told them to obey My voice.” That is what God has done through the generations. He has continually tried to get His very best to His people, His special treasure.

He said, “I rose up early. I protested. I pleaded. I proclaimed, ‘Obey My voice.’”

“Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart” (Jeremiah 11:8).

Let’s look at Deuteronomy 5:29. Here the heart of God is saying once again, “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!”

This is the heart of God yearning over His special people, yearning over the people He formed for Himself. Although we are not in the same position as Israel was, God is in the same position with us where our obedience to the new covenant is concerned.

For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart [of death] out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God (Ezekiel 36:24-28).

He said He would put a new heart in them. You and I have that new heart if we’ve made Jesus Lord of our lives. We not only have a new heart, but we also have God’s Spirit dwelling in us to teach us to walk in His ways and give us individual guidance. When we come before the Lord on that great day for our rewards, we will have no excuse for not fulfilling His will. He has put a new spirit in us. His Spirit within us teaches us, counsels us and manifests the presence of Jesus in us.

Gloria Copeland

The mercy of God is not weak. It was the motivating
force behind the plan of redemption that brought Jesus to
the earth. In the mind of God, mercy was the revelation
that developed the plan. It was God’s design to extend
His goodwill toward man. Because of mercy, the division
between man and God was eternally broken.

When Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem the night
of Jesus’ birth, angels came and appeared to the shepherds
in the field and proclaimed the glory of God: “Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward
men” (Luke 2:14). We have interpreted that to mean
goodwill among men. But the Apostle Paul and the
Apostle Peter both said that Jesus came preaching
peace, not among men, but between God and man.
God was proclaiming, “Goodwill to men from God.”

God sent Jesus as a mercy sacrifice to the world. He
acted in compassion when He sent Jesus to the cross. Jesus
was not the one needing mercy from God. It was you and
me. Nevertheless, the Savior came to this world offering
His comfort: “Come unto me, all ye that…are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). And He left this
world promising to pray and intercede for us that we might
receive the Comforter.

Jesus bore the shame of the cross for the joy of knowing
that we would be able to be reborn in the power and the
image of Almighty God and receive the Comforter—the
Holy Spirit. He knew we could then manifest the same
mercy and comfort on the earth as He had done. “Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works
that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).

Compassion, mercy and comfort directed all the works
of Jesus’ ministry. If mercy and compassion were over all
the works of God, then it was over all the works of Jesus
because Jesus said, “The Son can do nothing of himself,
but what he seeth the Father do” (John 5:19). Matthew
9:36 says, “But when he (Jesus) saw the multitudes, he was
moved with compassion on them, because they fainted,
and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”

Notice what it says: “He had compassion on them.”
The word, compassion means “an inner yearning deep in
your bowels [or innermost being].” It is not just a feeling. It
is talking about being led by the Holy Ghost as described
in Romans 8:26. He is compassion. There it says that the
Holy Spirit will move within us with groanings which
cannot be uttered.

Gloria Copeland

According to 2 Corinthians 1:3, God is “the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God
of all comfort.” If you study this verse, you will see what
the Spirit of God is saying through the Apostle Paul. He
is saying, Jesus Christ is mercy and comfort. Take hold of
that. Simply put, mercy and comfort express who Jesus is.
God is saying the same thing when He says He is both the
Father of Jesus and the Father of mercy and comfort.

The Son of God did not come to judge us or to teach
us something through hurt and pain. He came in mercy
and comfort to bring us the Father’s mercies—salvation,
deliverance, healing and more.

Ephesians 2: 4-6 says: “But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we
were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
(by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Together with Christ we were brought to life! Mercy
did it. It made us alive. We can say that “When we were
dead in sin, He made us alive together with mercy.” Why?
Because God is love, and when we say that, we are also
saying He is mercy and compassion. Because these words
are exact substitutes for one another, we can also say that
God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together
in heavenly places in mercy and comfort.”

As joint heirs with Jesus Christ, we are able to sit together
with Him and partake of His inheritance. This
means we share in His ministry of mercy. We become
mercy and comfort as He is. In His Name, we have a command
to take mercy and comfort to the rest of the world.

If we understand mercy in this light, then we can
gain an idea of how great and powerful His mercy is. Too
often we have looked at the word mercy like it meant pity
or sympathy—a weak thing. The voice of sympathy says,
“Oh, I wish there was something we could do.” But mercy
and compassion use faith and say, “There is something we
can do. We will pray in the Name of Jesus.”

Mercy and compassion act. Nothing is too great for
them. Faith works by love and God is love.

Gloria Copeland

The mercy of God is a celebration of love. In the
Hebrew language, mercy, love and compassion all
come from the same word, so when you say God is
love, you are also saying He is mercy and compassion.
We have had the idea that God is just love. God is
also mercy—the kindness that gives help to the most
undeserving. He is also compassion—the desire to bear
and relieve another’s distress.

The combination of mercy, love and compassion form the
identity of God Himself. Mercy is not a thing and compassion
is not a feeling. Together, they manifest a person. When
these three qualities demonstrated themselves in the Son of
God, they became a powerful force.

In His ministry, Jesus fully expressed the inner
character and nature of His Father each time He acted
in mercy. He gave us a revelation that mercy, love and
compassion are a person.

Consider these three scriptures as the foundation
for studying mercy in Jesus’ ministry: Psalm 145:8-9;
2 Corinthians 1:3; Ephesians 2:4.

Psalm 145:8-9 says: “The Lord is gracious, and full of
compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The
Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all
his works.” The fact that mercy is over all God’s works
is important. Mercy, not wrath and power, motivates
God to act. It covers every work He performs, and it
is the reason He does everything.

The Bible not only proclaims the power of God, but
also gives us a picture—a revelation—of His mercy.

For instance, if you were to compare a father with his
small son, you could easily see which of the two is the
stronger. But the only way to get a picture of the love this
man has for his son is to see him in action, exercising his
power of protection over the child. It is this open display of
mercy that allows us to see this father’s love.

Gloria Copeland

We need to learn to act on what God’s Word says and
take hold of His mercy like this woman did. We need to
learn to place our faith in the mercy of God, especially
when we sin. The devil will come along and accuse us,
telling us how bad we are for sinning when he is the one
that caused us to do it! This is the time to exercise our faith
in God’s tender mercy.

Second Peter 1:4 says that through His exceeding great
and precious promises, we become partakers of His divine
nature. His nature is mercy and compassion. We must
stand on 1 John 1:9 which says that “If we confess our sins,
he (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Don’t be moved by feelings of guilt after having
acted on God’s Word. Stand on it in faith. Stop putting
your faith in the way you feel, and begin putting your
trust in His tender mercy. Release your faith in His grace
and compassion.

Here are four ways to do that:

1. Put the Word first place. Make it the final authority
in your life, and change your thinking to agree
with it. When the Word says, “If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us,” begin to have
faith in that. Begin to incline your ear to that Word
and act on it even when you don’t feel like it.

2. Meditate on God’s mercy. Keep your mind on
Jesus and His mercy. Don’t think about all the
failure and bad things you’ve done. If you have
never done a good thing in your life, do one before
the day is over, and think on it. Remind yourself
that God did not get down on you when you were a
sinner, and He’s not going to get down on you now
that you are His child.

You cannot hide your mistakes from God when
you fail, but you can see His mercy following you,
and you can see yourself yielding to it. Meditate
on running to Him when you sin. Then think
about this. “How has my life changed since I have
believed that His mercy follows me forever? What
can I do to stand on the mercy of God?”

Do not meditate on fear. All fear is selfish
and is not of love. That makes it a sin. Worry is
fear because it is a self-centered concern that
always causes you to be afraid of “What’s going to
happen to me?” The way to cast it out is to replace
it with thoughts on love. The Bible says, “…perfect
love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18). The more you
meditate on love, the less worried about yourself
you will be because you have mercy and goodness
following you.

3. Act on the Word. As you meditate on it, the Word
will begin casting out fear. As you are released from
fear, you will begin to look for opportunities to act
on your faith. The more deeply rooted you become
in God’s Word, the more you will desire for Jesus to
bring people across your path so that you can pray
for them and see Him raise them up. Remember
faith always acts before seeing the results.

4. Make a decision to live the life of love. When
we live the life of love, we become vulnerable,
but God knows that. The Apostle Paul wrote in
Romans 8:36 that to the world we are considered
lambs to the slaughter. However, he also said, “…we
are more than conquerors through him that loved
us” (v. 37). First Corinthians 13:8 says love never fails.
He becomes our shield and protection.

Gloria Copeland

God promises us His mercy, but as believers, we must act as though His Word is true, or we will never have any faith in it. You can lay a Bible on the table and say, “Oh, this is a holy book.” But if you never depend on what God says in it and act on it, its power will never be released in your life. Holy things are not fragile. You can stand on God’s Word when all else looks like it is going to fail.

Realize that you must place your faith in the Word of God for His will to come to pass for you. You must exercise faith in His mercy to receive mercy just as you exerted faith in the law of salvation to get born again. For example, a man could die and go to hell after spending every Sunday of his life in church, if he never placed any action on his belief.

Romans 10:17 says: “…faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Because the Bible is our source of faith, you must hear what the Word of God says about faith in order to develop it. In the same way, if you want to exercise your faith in the mercy of God, you must study and meditate on what the Word of God says concerning His mercy.

Some Christians don’t know what they have in the new birth. They have heard the message of the Cross and received faith to be born again, but haven’t heard what the Word says about salvation for this life—for today and tomorrow. If they had, they would have discovered that they are already in Christ Jesus, and have received His worthiness to be in the Father’s presence. They would begin to understand that God is not looking at them except through eyes of mercy and grace. He sees us in Jesus—in His worthiness.

Gloria Copeland

As our Shepherd, Jesus has invited us to a banquet
table laid out in the presence of the devil and all of hell,
where we can feast upon the provisions of His tender
mercies. Psalm 23:5-6 says: “Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my
head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”

Jesus is not talking about the marriage supper of the
Lamb or any heavenly feast, because none of our enemies
are present in heaven. He is referring to an earthly
celebration where we can come and feed on the meat
of God’s Word at His table. We come to that banquet by
an act of our will, by faith. Verse four says: “Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil.”

Instead of enjoying the tremendous feast, most people
want to get underneath the banquet table and eat the
crumbs because they feel so undeserving. God has trouble
getting them to receive what He has provided. They forget
that although Jesus is the only one worthy of being there,
He has extended His mercy to us and paid the price that
we might eat with Him.

Remember what Psalm 23 says: “Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” Can you see
what God is saying? It is a sure thing that His mercy and
goodness will follow us. His mercy is with us through
the good and the bad in our lives. And if His mercy is
continually following us, then think how easy it is for
us to stop and embrace it.

Gloria Copeland

Some people have the idea that walking in tune with
God means that He will always require them to do
without the things they desire—that they can never
expect anything good from Him. But this is not true.
God’s mercy extends to the things we want as well
as to our personal needs. He longs to give us more
than we could wish for ourselves.

Our ability to ask God for things is not as great as what
He yearns to give us. He wants to provide abundance
so that we can have plenty for ourselves and plenty
to share with others. It is His desire that we align
ourselves spiritually with Him, so He can use us as
channels to bless others. God knows that prosperity will
ruin the one who trusts in his own thinking.

The fool will squander what God has given him on his
own lusts and forget that God was the One who gave him
power to receive it. So God is waiting for us to get our minds
and wills lined up with the mind and will of the Spirit.
When our desires match His, He can give to us without
having it hurt us.

James 1:4 expresses the will of God concerning us. It
says, “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may
be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” It is His desire that
we experience no lack in receiving the things we desire.
And Psalm 23 reflects this same thought. Verse one says,
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Gloria Copeland

When the Apostle Paul had a “thorn in his flesh,” a
messenger sent by Satan to buffet him, he asked God to
take it from him three times. (See 2 Corinthians 12:7.) Each
time God said, “My grace is sufficient for you.” He did not
say, “You cannot be delivered” or “My grace is insufficient.”
He was telling Paul that he was free to receive grace and
mercy in that area all the time.

God responded to Moses in much the same way, saying
to him, “I am that I am.” He was saying to Moses, “When
you need credentials while before Pharaoh, that is the I
am that I am. I am the water coming out of the rock. I am
healing. I am redemption from your sin.” In other words, “I
am the source of all your need. Whatever you need, I am
that I am.”

Who is God? His identity is summed up in three
words—mercy, compassion and love. Through these, He
is revealing Himself to us today as He did to Moses. He is
saying, “I am Mercy. I am Compassion. I am Love.”

Gloria Copeland