LIGHT OF MERCY FOR HEALING (2)

“HAVE MERCY on me, O Lord, for I am weak, O Lord, HEAL ME, for my bones are troubled” – Psalm 6:2

Examples abound in both Old and New Testaments, of people who walked in the LIGHT of MERCY for HEALING: “HAVE MERCY on me, O Lord, for I am weak, O Lord, HEAL ME, for my bones are troubled” (Psa.6:2). God strengthens and heals by His Mercy. The meaning of Mercy is aptly captured in Matthew 14:14: “And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them and HEALED their sick.” The word “compassion” means that Jesus was so moved that His stomach churned, or literally, “his bowels yearned” for the crowd. What is significant is that this churning led Him to do something positive. He saw the need and then went into action.

Mercy is Compassion in Action! God is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger, and of GREAT MERCY – to all people (Psa.145: 8-9). To be merciful means to be full of compassion; and that’s God’s Character. “The Multitude of [His] Mercy” encompass all of His provisions – including Healing (Psa.106:7). His Mercy outworks miracles of healing: “Who forgives all your iniquities, WHO HEALS all your diseases…The LORD is MERCIFUL and gracious, slow to anger, and ABOUNDING in MERCY” (Psa.103:3,8). God works wonders by Mercy: “To Him who alone does GREAT WONDERS, for HIS MERCY endures forever” (Ps.136:4). Mercy drives His dynamic wonder-working Power. Virtually every miracle – including healings – done by our Lord Jesus was a Miracle of Mercy, but the recipients came in faith, with definite desires.

The man who brought his son, possessed by a dumb spirit to the Lord, encountered the Light of Mercy for Healing (Mk.9:17-27). He had told the Lord: “But if You can do anything, HAVE COMPASSION on us and HELP us” (Mk.9:22b). Mercy answered and helped him. Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, cried out to Jesus – the Son of David – for Mercy; and he was delivered from blindness and begging (Mk.10:46-49). Mercy heard Him and silenced those who would have kept him bound in blindness and penury. The Light and Might of Mercy responded to his Cry.

The pool of Bethesda was a place of Mercy (Jh.5: 1-8). There the weak, feeble, and impotent man encountered the Lord of Mercy and was lifted from thirty-eight years of infirmity, a wasting disease and satanic stagnancy. Out of a crowd of paralyzed, blind, lame, and sick folks, Mercy separated him for a life-transforming miracle (Jh.5:1-8). It appears from the story that it was his helplessness and hopelessness, that drew Jesus to him. The Light of Mercy for Healing is available for every of our situations of weakness, helplessness, and hopelessness!

Mercy moves! Just as God by His very nature moves in Mercy; we His children may not only receive Healing by Mercy, we must be Emissaries and Ministers of Mercy, disseminating the Light of Mercy to all along life’s pathways, perpetuating His Ministry of Mercy (Lk.4:18).