Mercy always triumphs over judgment

Tonight in our bible study lesson we will be looking at James 2:13, where Pastor James writes, "Mercy triumphs over judgment".

Mercy always triumphs over judgment. It's easy to judge, it's harder to show mercy. Of course there is a big, big difference between judgment and discernment.

Let me give you six basic indicators that expose a judgmental spirit.

1. If that person's failure improves the opinion I have of myself, I am judging.
2. If that's person's failure decreases my concern for the faults I know I have, I am judging.
3. If that's persons failure gives me a desire to see that they are punished and that when I fail I desire only mercy, I am judging.
4. If I am eager to tell others about their failure, I am judging.
5. If that' person failure prompts me to review their past failures, I am judging.
6. If that's persons failure causes me to feel that I cannot forgive them, I am judging.

Mercy always triumphs over mercy.

One of the stories that I love to use (often) in teachings in the big room is the following:

In The Whisper Test, Mary Ann Bird writes: I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to others: a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech.

When schoolmates asked, "What happened to your lip?" I'd tell them I'd fallen and cut it on a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. I was convinced that no one outside my family could love me.

There was, however, a teacher in the second grade whom we all adored--Mrs. Leonard by name. She was short, round, happy--a sparkling lady. Annually we had a hearing test. ... Mrs. Leonard gave the test to everyone in the class, and finally it was my turn. I knew from past years that as we stood against the door and covered one ear, the teacher sitting at her desk would whisper something, and we would have to repeat it back--things like "The sky is blue" or "Do you have new shoes?"

I waited there for those words that God must have put into her mouth, those seven words that changed my life. Mrs. Leonard said, in her whisper, "I wish you were my little girl." God says to every person deformed by sin, "I wish you were my son" or "I wish you were my daughter."

May we show mercy today in a judgmental world.