November 6

Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion? — Mic 7:18 BSB

God delights in showing mercy. It isn’t something He gives reluctantly. He isn’t forced to show mercy by persistent pleading, and it doesn’t have to be pulled out of Him by His people’s cries. Mercy is His favorite attribute, and He takes pleasure in extending it to those in misery. How hard it is for us to believe this until we experience it in our souls and feel the sweet sense of mercy in our consciences. We often imagine God only in His anger, His justice, and His wrath against sin and sinners, doubting that there is mercy for us. We struggle to believe that He enjoys showing mercy to broken, repentant sinners.

Who would have thought of mercy if it hadn’t first been in God’s heart? Who could have imagined such a thing—that “there is forgiveness with God,” that He can “pardon iniquity, transgression, and sin,” that He can cast all our sins behind His back and blot them out like a cloud? This is what God has revealed about Himself in His word. But it’s only when mercy touches a troubled soul and God reveals His love through His Son that we can truly grasp the depth of His mercy and rejoice in it as both suitable and saving.