Sometimes the truth is better than we think. Some people think God’s grace and God’s mercy are the same, and they can be used interchangeably. They aren’t. Mercy is God’s not punishing us as our sins deserve. Grace is the unmerited favor we receive from God; it’s God blessing us as we do not deserve. And the great thing is that He gives us both grace and mercy, not just one or the other.

This isn’t just theory, and it isn’t just for the future. God wants us to enjoy everyday moments of mercy and grace. Here are some ways He’s done that for me.

Merciful God

As I’ve written here in the past, I’ve had some dark struggles during my life — unpleasant experiences I’m loathe to relive. God willing I won’t have to. Even in the middle of those storms, though, I knew God was right there with me.

I once wrote briefly about an ex-fiancé breaking his commitment to celibacy before our marriage — and with prostitutes, no less. Our church at the time, whose pastor was providing premarital counseling, knew about the incident, but did nothing. They pretended nothing happened.

As a young person with little life history, that experience set me off on a self-destructive journey. For three years I was ludicrously promiscuous, thinking, “If he thinks he’s making it to heaven, then I certainly don’t have a problem.” The truth is, whether I realized it or not, I was responsible for my own behavior, not my ex-fiancé — no matter what he’d done.

I’ve thought about those three years from time to time. Many people contract damaging and even life-threatening diseases that way. Why was I spared? For me, the answer is mercy. I did not experience that form of punishment for my sins — punishment that would have been just.

Ephesians 2:3-5 says:

We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Grace of God

What then is grace — one of the last words in the above verse? It is God’s unmerited favor toward us. When I think of grace, the first things that pop into my mind are my beautiful children. I do not deserve their hugs and kisses and “I love yous.” I did not earn my son’s sleepy, “I want you, Mommy,” first thing in the morning. But I receive them nonetheless. When I was 40 and pregnant with my youngest I was terrified. But God was smiling on us, and I cannot imagine my life without my children.

As wonderful as my babies are, though, the most important example of grace in my life — and yours, too, if you are a Christian — is our salvation. We did not earn it. Any good that we can possibly do is worthless for the purpose. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isaiah 64:6).

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians. 8-9)

Through mercy we are not punished as we deserve. Through grace we are given the hope of eternal life, which we do not deserve. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our repentance of sin and belief in his gift to us, we are born anew and given reason to hope! All is not lost! The best is truly yet to come.

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life (emphasis mine). (Titus 3:3-7).

We would all do well to take a moment each day to consider how we are experiencing the mercy and grace of God in our lives. Maybe we deserved a speeding ticket but got a warning instead. Perhaps (like me) the lump you found disappeared after prayer, or ended up being benign.

Blessings, like a promotion or raise, are God’s little ways of showering us with grace. They’re reminders that God cares in the small ways, even as He has cared for us in the greatest way of all, giving us eternal life. Let’s embrace those moments, and praise Him for His unending grace and mercy toward us.