Transactions of the Soul

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Proverbs 11:17 (NKJV) The merciful man does good for his own soul, but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.

What It Is Speaking to Me

Mercy and cruelty have two sides. The outward and the inward. It is easy and obvious in a sense to only consider the outward, and less so the inward. But mercy and cruelty are formative. They both form something in YOU, while it also is forming something in others.

It is easy to think mercy as entirely outward-facing. You show it to someone else, they benefit, transaction complete. That's the whole story. But Solomon doesn't say the merciful man does good for others — he says the merciful man does good for his own soul.

In reality mercy shapes the one who gives it.

Think about the last time you showed someone mercy, not the performative kind, not the kind you mentioned later in conversation, but the real, quiet, no-strings-attached kind. Maybe they don't even really know that you showed it. Something in you felt different afterward, didn't it? Not because you earned something. Not because someone applauded. But because something moved in your soul that doesn't move any other way. That is what he is talking about.

Cruelty does the same thing. It doesn't just hurt its target, it also hollows out the one wielding it. The cruel man troubles his own flesh. He doesn't just hurt others. He carries the weight of it in his body. The bitterness, the hardness, the reflexive self-protection — it costs him something. It always does.

Mercy and cruelty is never just a transaction between two people. It is always, simultaneously, a transaction between you and your own soul.

What Is It Saying to You?

When was the last time you did something merciful with no audience to know about it?Is there any hardness in you right now toward a person, a situation, a season of life that might be costing your soul more than you realize?

What Are We Going to Do About It?

Choose mercy today. Don't post it. Don't even let yourself dwell on it too long afterward. Just do it and pay attention to what it does to your soul.