Mercy - Do We Deserve It? Can We Expect It?

Once again, I've spent a significant portion of the morning not knowing what I was going to blog about. And once again, I found a source of inspiration on Facebook. I'm not sure who keeps attaching General Conference quotes to nice pictures, but I hope they never stop.

Granted, this is probably just a personal opinion, not gospel truth, but it's the personal opinion of someone who, I believe, knows God pretty well and has a strong relationship with Him, so he might know.

I wonder how many people fit into the category that Elder Holland described, those who don't expect mercy and often feel like they don't deserve it? I feel like I'm half-way in that category because I know I don't deserve mercy, but do I expect it? ...Sorta.

Well, yes, I do expect to receive some mercy - probably a lot more than I deserve. Why? Because God is loving and merciful. Another quote I found on Facebook but haven't blogged about... I lost the link, so I'll try to paraphrase it:

Some people we forgive again and again. Not because they deserve forgiveness, but because we don't want to lose them.

God does not want to lose us. I believe that God will give us every chance He conceivably can give us. I believe that He'll accept our apologies over and over again, as long as we're sincerely sorry. I believe that God will count us as being righteous, as long as we're trying to be. I know from personal experience that He doesn't give up on a soul anywhere near as easily as we do.

Do we deserve His mercy? No, we probably don't. Will we get it anyway? I'm counting on it. His forgiveness is something I can hold on to, to keep me going. Without it, I'm sure I've already doomed myself, so there's really no point to keep trying. But God is loving and merciful. He's still fighting for my soul, so so am I. If He's trying to save me, and I'm trying to be saved, then I will be, wether I deserve it or expect it or not.