Build Your Prayers on the Mercy of God

The ancient city of Nineveh stood as a monument to human wickedness. Historical records document the city's systematic brutality: prisoners were impaled alive, flayed, beheaded, or dragged to death with ropes attached to rings that pierced their bodies. They were blinded by the king's own hand and hung by their hands or feet to die slowly. Others had their brains beaten out or their tongues torn out and were left to bleed to death. Still others had the bleeding heads of the slain tied around their necks while waiting their turn to be tortured. The Assyrian kings actually boasted of such cruelty, and the city built its power through deliberate deception, entering treaties they never intended to keep before demanding tribute from trusting nations.

When the Lord commanded Jonah to proclaim judgment against this "exceedingly great city," the prophet's initial response was outright flight. Jonah understood something profound about God's character that would soon be revealed in ways that challenged his very understanding of divine justice.

Jonah's struggle with divine mercy

After his dramatic rescue from the belly of the great fish, Jonah finally obeyed God's command and preached to Nineveh. The results were unprecedented: an entire city, from the greatest to the least, repented in sackcloth and ashes.

Yet rather than rejoicing, Jonah became "greatly displeased and angry." His prayer reveals the heart of his struggle: "Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity" (Jonah 4:2).

Jonah's indignation exposes a common human tendency that reveals how far our hearts can drift from God's desires. When we encounter wickedness and witness people living in ways that provoke our righteous anger, our immediate response is typically a cry for divine justice. We want God to act swiftly in judgment against those whose actions offend us. Yet this instinctive response, however understandable, places us out of alignment with God's heart, which yearns for repentance and restoration even among the most hardened sinners.

God's response to Jonah's anger is both gentle and instructive. Through the object lesson of the plant that provided shade and then withered, the Lord revealed His heart:

"Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?" (Jonah 4:11).

This divine rebuke unveils the boundless nature of God's mercy, a mercy that extends because God is inherently compassionate.

Justice redefined through the cross

The cross of Christ transforms our understanding of divine justice entirely. Before Calvary, we might have viewed God's mercy toward sinners as a suspension of justice (as if God simply overlooked sin for the sake of compassion). But the cross reveals a different reality: mercy and justice meet perfectly in Christ's atoning work.

Jesus deserves the full measure of His redemptive work. Having paid the price for sin, having satisfied divine justice through His sacrifice, having conquered death through His resurrection, Christ is entitled to see the fruit of His suffering. The rescue of sinners is what is owed to Jesus for His perfect obedience and substitutionary sacrifice.

"As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities" (Isaiah 53:11).

The salvation of the lost is Christ's reward, the satisfaction for which He endured the cross.

Every soul that comes to faith, every heart that turns from darkness to light, represents justice fulfilled; justice that demands Christ receive what He purchased with His blood.

This understanding should revolutionize how we view both salvation and evangelism. We are not asking God to be lenient with sinners. We are asking Him to give Jesus what He deserves. We plead for divine faithfulness to honor Christ's completed work.

Praying with kingdom perspective

This truth must fundamentally guide our prayers for God's intervention in a broken world. When we witness the terrible wars waged by evil people, when we see innocents oppressed and killed daily, when we observe the darkness spreading across nations and communities, our prayers should not merely cry out for justice in the traditional sense. Instead, we should plead for mercy to rain from the heavens so that Jesus might receive His full reward.

In our own country, we see rampant lawlessness, disregard for human dignity, and a culture increasingly devoted to self-worship. Rather than simply asking God to judge these sins, we should pray that Christ would see the fruit of His sacrifice even among those currently walking in rebellion. We should intercede that mercy would break through hardened hearts, that the gospel would advance, and that Jesus would receive the honor due His name.

Our homes often reflect the brokenness of the wider world: broken marriages, wayward family members, destructive lifestyles that seem to spiral beyond our ability to influence or change. Here too, our prayers should be shaped by Christ's right to receive His reward. We pray not just for behavioral change but for genuine conversion, not just for moral improvement but for hearts transformed by grace.

Perhaps most challengingly, we must apply this perspective to our own lives. Our secret sins, harbored anger and bitterness, struggles with greed, lust, and envy, our pride and self-righteousness (all of these represent areas where Christ deserves to see greater fruit from His sacrifice). Our sanctification is about Jesus receiving what He purchased with His blood.

The vision that should drive our prayers and shape our worldview is this: that not one soul that belongs to Christ would be lost, that every person for whom He died would be gathered into the loving arms of the Father. This is confidence in the perfect efficacy of Christ's atoning work for those who believe.