Mercy Me!

 
Matthew 5:7  Blessed are the merciful,  For they shall obtain mercy.

 When Linda and I lived in Michigan, I pastored a small church that eventually closed it's doors. That was one of the hardest things that we have gone through. We looked at it like the death of a loved one, with the church being the "loved one." It took a long time to go through the process of grieving. The amazing part of this was that God used that to help us help others who were going through similar situations in their life. 
   That is what "MERCY" is all about. It is the process of putting ourselves in the shoes of others and showing love and compassion toward them. We identify in one way or another with what they are going through. This does not mean that we always "understand", but we care. When someone is grieving, we should never say that "we understand what you are going through. We may have a similar problem, but we really don't understand totally what they are going through. 
The great thing is that God does understand and He cares. Jesus not only had compassion on others who were hurting. He was "MOVED with compassion". He put compassion into action, especially by dying on the Cross for our sins. Now that is love and that is mercy! 
   The promise and blessing is that if we show mercy toward others we shall obtain mercy. God is there to comfort and encourage us and show us mercy. He showed us mercy by dying for our sins and forgiving us, when we deserved the worse.