God, Gracious and Merciful - Nehemiah 9:31

“Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; for You are God, gracious and merciful.” - Nehemiah 9:31.

We have so very much to be grateful for: our lives, our families, the providence God has shown us, the salvation that is ours through Jesus Christ - the list is endless. And to what do we owe these great and wonderful bounties in our lives? What have we done to deserve all that we are or have? Truth be told, we don’t deserve any of the wonderful blessings God has provided for us. God’s grace is unmerited, otherwise it wouldn’t be grace but just compensation for what we have done. It comes to us only because of the great love God has for us.
In Nehemiah’s time the wall surrounding Jerusalem was rebuilt. Upon it’s completion there began seven days of a public reading of the Book of the Law and the people gave thanks to God for all the grace He had bestowed upon them. They recalled God’s mercy to them despite their failings of faith. God is still merciful to us today despite our failings of faith.
“But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath;” - Psalm 78:38.
Our present world is quite possibly the worst representation of mankind ever presented to God. Murder, adultery, infanticide, homosexuality, idol worship; there simply is no sin that we have not taken to a hellish degree. That God doesn’t consume us in His righteous fiery rage is purely by His grace and mercy! “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.” - Lamentations 3:22.
God is patient with us despite our glowering insolence toward Him. Such patience can be born of love alone. Paul expresses this very idea in his letter to the Ephesians - “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,” - Ephesians 1:3-5. As God loves, so should we love. His grace and mercy surround us each and every day. Our love for God and our fellow men and women separates us from those who disdain His love, grace, and mercy.
May we always be thankful to our Heavenly Father who loves us and sheds His grace and mercy upon us for no other reason than His own good pleasure.