God is Merciful: Understanding God’s Heart

The following Bible verses teach us that God is merciful. Mercy is an essential aspect of God's character. Scripture tells us that "God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6). God's mercy is seen throughout scripture. In the Old Testament, we see God's mercy when he rescues the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. In the New Testament, we see God's mercy when he sends his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins.

God demonstrated his mercy by making us alive in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:4-5 says, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved." This is the ultimate demonstration of God's mercy. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to die for us, despite our sin and rebellion.

God loves mercy, and teaches his followers to be merciful just as God is merciful. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy" (Matthew 5:7). Jesus goes on to say that we are to forgive others, just as God has forgiven us. When we are merciful to others, we are showing them the same mercy that God has shown us.

Have you received God's mercy? Are you being merciful to others? We are all sinners in need of God's mercy and grace. His mercy is available to all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Have you received God's mercy? If so, thank him for it, and ask him to help you extend that same mercy to others.

Bible Verses about God’s Mercy

Exodus 34:6

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

Deuteronomy 4:31

For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

Psalm 18:25

With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless.

Psalm 25:6-7

Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!

Psalm 86:5

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

Psalm 103:2-5

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Psalm 103:8

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Psalm 145:9

The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Isaiah 30:18

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

Lamentations 3:22-23

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Micah 7:18

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.

Matthew 9:13

Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

Luke 1:50

And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

Romans 9:14-16

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

Ephesians 2:4-5

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

Titus 3:5

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 8:12

For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Be Merciful as God is Merciful

Luke 6:36

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Matthew 5:7

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Colossians 3:13

Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

James 2:13

For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Examples of God’s Mercy

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1 Timothy 1:16

But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

1 Peter 2:9-10

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.