GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER.

 

JULY 2.

God be merciful to me a sinner.
Luke 18:13

 

A SINNER can have no claim on a just and holy God.
 
He has nothing to plead,
  for he has lived in a state of rebellion against God.
 
He has nothing to appeal to but God's mercy,
  to mercy as displayed through a mediator.
 
God is propitious in Jesus.
 
But he can show no mercy,
  but through him.
 
We must therefore fix the eye on the cross,
  when we go to him for a pardon, peace,
    and everlasting life.
 
The publican felt his need of mercy.
 
He felt that he was totally unworthy of mercy.
 
He would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven,
  but he smote on his breast,
   the seat of his sin and suffering, and cried,
 “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
 
Friend, have you ever felt, as this publican felt.
 
Have you ever prayed, as this publican prayed?
 
If you have, you often pray so,
  for we shall never get beyond
   this prayer while we live below.
 
It will always be suitable.
 
If you have never thus felt and prayed,
  you are dead in sin, and
  your state is very dangerous.
 
No one ever prized the Saviour,
  until he felt himself a lost sinner;
  and no one was ever saved by Jesus,
   who did not prize him.
 
Lost sinners cry for mercy, and
  all who seek shall find.
 

A guilty helpless sinner I,

Must without his mercy die;

But when this is all my plea,

God in Christ is love to me.

 
James Smith 1849