THY KINGDOM COME (2)

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy” (Psalm 103:8.

 NKJV)

The prevailing atmosphere in the kingdom of heaven is love because God is love.  He loves in ways that is unimaginable by us. Paul gives us a glimpse of how God loves –“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 NLT). God makes the greatest sacrifice of love to the most undeserving! Imagine what would have been the fate of humanity if He had waited for us to love Him first before He loves us. God loves us by faith! He showed us love hopeful that we will one day appreciate it and love Him back.  He sacrificed His Son on our behalf when we were yet sinners –that is long before we even thought of turning away from our sins. In doing so, God set for us a pattern for growing His kingdom.

God’s kingdom comes by loving the unlovable and the undeserving; until we experience the love of God and embrace His Son. The gospel came to us through the unspeakable sacrifice of missionaries from far countries.  I can recall the story of how missionaries brought the gospel to us in West Africa. In those days, malaria had no cure and several of those missionaries died of malaria. Yet they came, determined to bring us “the glad tidings of the kingdom of God” (Luke 8:1 NKJV). Knowing that they may never go home alive, some of them came with their coffins. They put their lives on the line just so that we might become partakers of the everlasting life in Christ.  The kingdom of God has always been expanded through the sacrificial of love of believers towards other.

Napoleon Bonaparte of France was one of the greatest and most celebrated army generals of all times.  After a reflective appraisal of his military career and those of his other empire founders, and comparing their legacy with that of Christ, he arrived at the following conclusion: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded empires; but on what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force! Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour, millions of men would die for Him.” The kingdom of Christ is the kingdom of love. The Psalmist testified, “Your kingdom is built on what is right and fair. Love and truth are in all you do” (Psalm 89:14 NCV). Nothing unloving advances the interest of the kingdom of God.  God invites us to join the league of the privileged ones who will sacrificially push the frontiers of His kingdom into the enemies’ territories.

To this end, the word of God instructs us, “And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives” (Jude 1:22-23 NLT). 

Mercy is our strong weapon in winning the war against satan and sin.  Mercy is God’s love confronting human misery occasioned by sin. Sin renders us helpless such that it is only by mercy one can ever hope for deliverance. Hence, God’s mercy and truth goes before His face (Psalm 89:14 NKJV). His mercy meets sinners long before His wrath gets to them, and His wrath only shows up when His mercy has been so thoroughly refused and rejected.  Therefore, our text reminds us; “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy” (Psalm 103:8 NKJV). We can only serve God to the extent that we fit into this description of His. As He is merciful and gracious to us, so must we be merciful and gracious to others, especially those who are yet to trust Christ for their salvation.

As Christ’s ambassadors, we are dealers in mercy and grace.  The ministry of reconciliation only allows us to extend mercy and grace to others. We are not to judge and condemn any but only to serve as channels through which they will experience the love of God.  We must endeavour to present the gospel of the kingdom to our unbelieving friends, with all mercifulness and graciousness of God, until we joyfully pray with them to accept Christ as their ONLY Saviour and Lord. In this way, we will be giving credence to our prayer –“Thy Kingdom come.” God bless you as you lead a soul to Christ today in Jesus name!