To continue browsing while you listen, play the audio in a new window.

It can be frustrating when we feel like we've been struggling with the same problem our entire life. The Scriptures are repetitive too, and they reflect the reality that so much of life seems to repeat itself. Our job is to find one way to defeat our enemy, then use that strategy again and again as we win over our temptations and dig deeper into ourselves to take the evil out at its root.

(References: Daniel 4:10-37)

In regular language, "mercy" means being caring and compassionate toward people in poor states. That's a position we are all in relative to the Lord, all the time. Without Him we would be unable to choose what is good; without Him we would be unable to formulate a reasonable thought. Without Him, in fact, we would instantly cease to exist; we have life only because He constantly gives us life. So we are, quite literally, at His mercy. Fortunately, the Lord is caring and compassionate to a degree we cannot fathom. He is the source of all caring and all compassion, and of love itself. His mercy toward us never lessens, never abates, never ends; His whole purpose is to bring each of us, individually, to heaven. The meaning of "mercy" in the Bible is closely tied to this idea: it represents love in a general sense, and the desire for good that comes from love. It can also represent the desire for good and the ideas that describe it when those thoughts and desires are inspired by love of the Lord.