“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7. 

“The LORD your God is a merciful God.” Deuteronomy 4:31, NKJV. “The Lord is very compassionate and merciful.” James 5:11, NKJV. By nature, humans are cold and unloving, so when someone shows a forgiving spirit, it is because the heart has been transformed. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” 2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV. “The merciful are ‘partakers of the divine nature,’ and in them the compassionate love of God finds expression.” Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 22. 

When Christ abides in the soul, we will no longer harbor unkind thoughts toward people who have wronged or injured us. This does not mean we trust the perpetrators or allow them access into our immediate presence, but we will not allow our hearts to be defiled by a vindictive spirit. “The merciful man does good for his own soul, but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.” Proverbs 11:17, NKJV. 

The merciful cannot ignore those who are suffering or those who are oppressed; they are not like the priest or the Levite who passed by the wounded man in the parable of the Good Samaritan. The merciful have compassion for those who are struggling. They look for ways to come close to suffering people and help relieve their pain. They offer kind looks, sympathetic words, and kind acts to lift burdens from weary shoulders. 

“The merciful ‘shall obtain mercy.’ There is sweet peace for the compassionate spirit, a blessed satisfaction in the life of self-forgetful service for the good of others. The Holy Spirit that abides in the soul and is manifest in the life will soften hard hearts and awaken sympathy and tenderness.” Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, 23. “The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” Proverbs 11:25.