And what if He thus purposes to make known and show the wealth of His glory in dealing with the vessels of His mercy which He has prepared beforehand for glory
This one verse, Romans 9:23 left me pondering the words "dealing with the vessels of His mercy" & "prepared beforehand"....
So WE, being the "vessels of His mercy" had to be "dealt with" - what is a vessel? It is a carrier. So if we, the carriers of His mercy, had to be "prepared beforehand"...when might that have been? When were we "prepared"?
In thinking about it, knowing that mercy is simply defined as "not getting what we deserve" but looking deeper, what it really is is God's compassion, His tenderness in dealing with us...this verse would suggest His compassion would be shown THROUGH us. Okay, we know He lives in us..the believers...so this makes sense...but when were we "prepared" to "carry" His "mercy"?
I think we are prepared in the "valley", that we are prepared during what appears to be the lowest point of our lives...when we cry out to Him FINALLY and we submit. The lessons we learn during THAT process prepare us to carry His mercy as far as He intends for us to carry it. It might just be to our families, our neighborhoods or (through a message board ) maybe to countless people from different places....so my opinion is that He prepares us when we are in the very lowest place we've ever been in. He shows us His mercy and we then take that same "compassion" and we are HERE sharing it with others ALREADY.
Can you fathom it??? He either has prepared or is preparing us SO HE CAN WORK THROUGH US!
