Mercy has
been one of the Saviour’s attributes I thought I understood well. Not until
recently did I realise I only understood it partially.
I have for
a while now been praying for mercy regarding my illness. I have wanted a
healing. There have been days when I felt the absence of it acutely and I am
ashamed to admit with that absence came disbelief of God’s love. I could simply
not understand it. I thought I qualified even just for a fraction of the ample mercy
we are told is ever at the Saviour’s disposal to give.
As I
reflected on this phenomenon recently I thought there must be something I was missing and
there certainly was. It was given to me to see clearly that mercy cannot be
given on demand, otherwise it is not mercy. Mercy comes from one who is
merciful to give. It cannot be manipulated, demanded, expected, or even earned.
It comes from the Saviour’s merciful heart and therefore it comes on His terms.
Saviour’s mercy is a gift that should be trusted in but when and how it is
offered is up to Him.
Our part in
receiving mercy is trust. Because mercy is usually given as a form of relief
but if that relief was given us prematurely, it could jeopardize our growth and
learning. Consider the multi-faceted answers to our prayers and you will see
how complex deliverance of mercy can be:
”If all the sick for whom we pray were healed,
if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program
of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free
agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith.
“If joy and peace and rewards were
instantaneously given the doer of good, there would be no evil – all would do
good but not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of
strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency,
only satanic controls. Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our
desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no
suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death, and if these were not, there
would also be no joy, success, resurrection, nor eternal life and godhood.” (President
Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, p 97).
Enduring something difficult when a promise of
mercy has been given but is not forthcoming is not for faint hearted. Trusting someone
we do not see or something we have no proof of is a hard doctrine. We live by
sight in this world and we often fail in our faith. I have often wondered how
the Saviour can be so restrained and so tolerant of us when we lack in our
faith in Him and then I came across this scripture which helped me to understand:
“I am Jehovah, and I know the end from the
beginning, therefore my hand shall be over thee” (Abraham 2:8)
Notice
how He did not say, “I know all things from beginning to the end”. Instead He
said it the other way around. He said, “I know THE END”. In other words, I know
how this is going to end up. I know the end product of YOU. I can be tolerant
with you and what you are going through because I know the end.
The
Saviour is not so concerned about where we have been but He focuses on the
direction we are facing and where that direction will help us end up. For that
good He reserves His mercy for the times and events in our lives that will be
profitable for that end. His main concern is our eternal well-being and what we
will become. This concern overrides the comfort and ease we expect in this
life. He is ever driven by the work He shares with the Father to “bring to pass
the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39)
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