God be merciful to me a sinner

God be merciful to me a sinner. God be merciful to me a sinner. God be merciful to me a sinner.

The illogic of grace as someone put it. If God worked logically he’d zap us all rather quickly; well, me at least. You sin – you get punished. The End. Simple cause and effect. But God chooses to show mercy. He chooses to forgive. He chooses to give me a second chance. And a third chance, and forth, and fifth and 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 etc. The Christian life is not a matter of believing certain things but of living a certain kind of life. A life centred on loving God and responding to his love.

How can I love God? Well, first and foremost, as Scripture says, by doing what he says. “If you love me you will obey my commandments.” So why do I find it so hard to put this key revelation into practice, and so routinely fail to do what I know God wants?

Secondly I can show my love of God by respecting him and all that he has made. If I claim to love God but do not give two hoots for the world he has made and the millions made in his image across the world, I am no more than the Newhaven fog horn letting off steam.

Loving God is not giving mental assent to the “truth” I love God. Loving God is a matter of action. Just as having faith in God is not a matter of giving mental assent to a bunch of doctrines. It is a matter of action. Why do we get so bogged down in the mechanics of the Christian life that we omit to live it? Like having a brand new iPod, and working out as exactly as I can how it works and why it can achieve what it does – but failing to fill my soul with the beautiful music it was designed to produce.

God have mercy on me a sinner. God have mercy of me a sinner. God have mercy on me a sinner.