Characteristics

Psalms 103:8 NLT
“The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.”

This verse says that God is compassionate. Compassion is sympathy and concern for the sufferings of others and the desire to alleviate such sufferings. We can have compassion without being compassionate. In other words, we can care but never do anything about it. God is compassionate, it is part of His character, He sees with compassion and acts compassionately.

Mercy is the concept that involves helping those who are in need or that are in distress. This passage says that God is merciful, or FULL of mercy. Mercy is another characteristic of God. How many times has God seen us in distress and delivered, and I’m also talking about the times that we think we delivered ourselves.

This verse says that God is slow to get angry. Think of all the times that anger has risen in our heads, which really comes from our heart. Usually the anger was against someone that said something we did not like, or did something that we despised. God is not like that AT ALL! God being slow to anger with us, it’s just another one of His defining characteristics. If we could only be like God and be slow to anger.

This verse says that God is filled, or dare I say overflowing, with unfailing love. I have seen failing love, and so have you. We have seen it with loved ones, we have seen it with friends, and we have even seen it with fellow Christians. God is not like that, His love never fades, never wanes, never lets us go, never gives up on us.

These are some of God’s characteristics and we are made in His image. We are called His children that He fashioned and formed, so shouldn’t they be our characteristics as well?

Prayer:
Lord, I sing, “To be like Jesus, to be Like Jesus, that’s all I ask, to be like Him. All through life’s journey, from birth (spiritual) to glory, that’s all I ask, is to be like Him. In Your name Lord, Amen!