Weaknesses do not debar us from mercy; rather they incline God to us the more (Psa. 78:39). Mercy is a part of the church’s marriage inheritance. Christ betroths her to him ‘in mercy’ (Hos. 2:19). The husband is bound to bear with the wife, as being the ‘weaker vessel’ (1 Peter 3:7), and shall we think Christ will exempt himself from his own rule, and not bear with his weak spouse?

If Christ should not be merciful to our weaknesses, he should not have a people to serve him. Suppose therefore we are very weak, yet so long as we are not found amongst malicious opposers and underminers of God’s truth, let us not give way to despairing thoughts; we have a merciful Saviour.

 – Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2008), 58.