Mercy is a divine motivator. In other words, if you want God to work on your behalf, engage the force of mercy. Mercy works basically in two broad ways. First of all, it delivers an offender from the punishment of his error. There is a clear demonstration of this in the story told by Jesus in Matthew 18:23-33. A servant owed his lord 10,000 talents and was to be committed to jail since he could not pay. When he pleaded for mercy, he was released of the obligation to re-pay as well as the jail term. Before one can enjoy mercy this way, there must be some form of acknowledgement. It is generally believed that Psalm 51 was David’s penitent prayer after Nathan confronted him with the sin of adultery and murder. In verse 3 he declares, “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”

After disobeying God, Adam and Eve acknowledged their conditions, being naked, but not their transgressions. They even traded accusations. Adam fixed the blame on Eve, who in turn pointed at the serpent. The same pattern was repeated by Cain. He failed to acknowledge his sin after he killed Abel. That’s not how mercy flows. Apart from delivering from sin and its consequences, mercy also delivers the virtues of God to people. When two blind men approached Jesus, all they asked for was the mercy of God. That produced for them recovery of sight. Like the other form of mercy, acknowledgement is necessary here too. In the former, wrong is acknowledged; in the latter, you acknowledge His ability. As soon as the blind men admitted that Jesus had the power to heal them, there was the release of mercy. In either case, we can access mercy only by coming to the throne of grace.