Vessels of Mercy and Wrath

Thursday 14 May
READ: Rom 9:2 – 23
MORE LESSON: 2 Tim. 2:20-21

Today we celebrate the power of God and His mighty salvation when we remember what He did to Pharaoh and the hosts of Egypt. Pharaoh and his hosts were a creation of God as much as Moses and the Israelites, but one is a story of the wrath of God and the other, a story of the mercy of God. When God wants to show His power, terrible and fearful, He selects certain vessels over whom He will display His power so that the whole world will see it and fear Him. Such vessels are described in Rom 9: 22 as vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. A major attribute of such vessels of destruction is the hardening of their hearts against all hands of peace and amnesty that God extends to them. Vessels of wrath are produced by divine predestination, but they have an active part to play in becoming such vessels by deciding in their hearts to draw the battle line against divine tolerance and damn the consequences of the warnings of the Living God. Such is the story of Pharaoh and as many as tread the path of God's wrath today. My heartfelt prayer is that you will not be a vessel of God's wrath, in Jesus’ name.

The Scripture also talks about the vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory (Rom 9:23 NKJV). When God wants to show how kind He is, He selects a man by grace to find favour and be the object of His mercy. It is not about the person's qualification or lack of it, his strength or weakness, his background or pedigree. God, that cannot be questioned, just decides to use the man to explain what His mercy looks like. How else can we explain Jacob and Esau still in the womb, having done nothing and God had selected Jacob to be master over his elder brother. That is selection by mercy! Many people start seeking theological explanations of why God chose Jacob over Esau, instead of them to throw theology away and say, God I don't know the explanation of what made you select Jacob over his elder brother. But whatever You saw that made You choose him as a vessel of mercy, by the same discretion, choose me as a vessel of mercy above those more qualified than me. Mercy has no explanation; it is God using His veto power to one’s advantage; nobody questions the King's veto.

That's why He said to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy: Rom 9:15-16 (NKJV).

Prayer/Action
* Lift your hands to God and say, Father, grant me Your mercy in life and destiny.
* Say, Lord, divinely choose me as Your vessel of mercy.
* Ask that your cry for mercy will not go unanswered today.

PROPHETIC PRAYER
I declare that from now on, life shall be easy for me; my ways shall be prosperous and Jehovah shall be there for me, in the name of Jesus.