Following Mercies

Psalms 23:6

NKJV

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Gods mercy follows me, for all of the days of my life. Both those days where I walked not with Him, and while I now do. His mercy has gone after me and covered all those things which I have done out of the evil of my heart. I have no reason to fear that what I have done in the past will bite and devour me in the present or future. God's mercy has covered it in the blood of Jesus. Had God not been merciful, I would not have ever received salvation. God's mercy is pivotal to my life. I have not received that which I deserve because of it, but rather I've been given abundantly more than I deserve. This abundance is a declaration of God's goodness. When I look back at the things Jesus has covered in His blood, I can clearly see the goodness of the Lord there too. Others will be able to look at my life and hear my testimony and glorify God because of who He is and what He’s done. From the perspective of a sheep, as this is written, they are able to look back in humble adoration of their wonderful shepherd who has always been there not only to help and heal, but forgive, bless, and to show compassion. They have the confidence of blessing in this life and the next, for they know that they will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

His mercy also goes before me, for my Shepherd leads me and He is merciful, preparing the best and safest way for my passage. Whatever I'm fearing in the future where I'm in need of mercy, I can rest assured that I’ll meet it there. I can have faith, the assurance of things not yet seen. Though I don't see it now, I can believe and trust that it's already taken care of. There are so many thoughts to take captive into the obedience of Christ each day, and fears of the future are one of them. God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear, and we can be sure that Gods goodness and mercy is greater than our fears of the future. Lately my vision of our God as a Father has been growing, and I'm learning to appreciate more and more his role as a Father. Psalms 103:13 says “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him.” This is a wonderful promise, and by Gods grace we can attain and claim it as our own, and become children of God who fear Him.

The feelings of fear of the future which we harbor in the docks of our heart can be paralyzing in our walks with God. Let us take encouragement from this “Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!” (Psalms 27:14) While the waves crash, rest in the fact that our beloved Saviour is walking on the water towards us, and the word will soon be spoken to calm our tempestuous hearts.

Love will never let us go. God has a firm grip on your life and mine, His love will never fail us and His mercy joyously follows us! Praise the Lord!

The Good Shepherd

John 10:11

NKJV

“I am the good shepherd…”

The ministry of the good shepherd has so many wonderful aspects to it. Instantaneously one may think of Psalm 23 when they hear of God being our shepherd, and they are not wrong. Psalm 23 is full of wonderful analogies that can bring the deepest and greatest comforts to a Christian at any period of their life. However, there is also what Jesus has to say about His role as our good shepherd, and this is what I would like to expound upon a bit this time around.

First off, our good shepherd is not a thief nor a robber. He does not come in unannounced, forcefully, or in the dark. He is not overcome by an evil desire to scatter the sheep, to steal them, or to kill them. His presence in the night does not cause us to fear, as a thief would. Rather, He comes in through the gate, and we know it is Him because of how He comes. The gatekeeper will only open at the voice of the shepherd of the sheep. Jesus comes to us through the gates of His Word and prayer, and that is how we can know it is Him and not a thief or robber. How else do we know it is Him?

We can know whether the voice we hear is our good shepherd by two simple things, a voice and a name. Jesus says that “the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name.” (John 10:3) When we are God's children and we are counted as sheep among His flock, we will know the voice of Him. His voice is unlike any other, in that it's gentle, quiet, comforting, truthful, and it overpowers all the other voices in our heads. When we hear it, we are put at ease, and it's sound calms the raging sea inside of us. At one word from our shepherd, the wolf will flee, the sea calm, and the clouds give way to beautiful sky. Anxiety, fear, depression, self-consciousness, self-pity, anger, confusion, all goes when we hear His voice! Not only this, but He also calls us by name! Our God, the one who created the heavens and the earth, time and space, matter and atmosphere, knows me by name. He knows you by name. Think about those you love, those you would die for, those who have been by your side and you trust. You know their name don't you? Chances are you know their whole life story. Well, God is the same. When He knows our name, it means so much more than a name. That name is simply an identifier for one of His beloved children, and it's a name He can never forget about because it's engraved upon the palm of His hand. We can trust Him because He knows our name, and thus He knows our needs, our stories, our strengths and weaknesses.

Lastly, our good shepherd leads us out and when he has brought us out he goes before us. The only way someone will follow is if they trust the one who leads. A sheep fully trusts it's shepherd, and thus is willing to follow after his voice, and will by no means follow the voice of a stranger but rather flee from it! This opens up a deep question for each heart that follows Christ: do you really trust Him? We all know what it's like to hear and feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit to act or speak in love. We have all heard the Shepherds voice leading us out. But, we don't always follow it. Perhaps we hesitate, or put a carnal spin on it, or don't listen at all. Why is this? We lack trust. We would rather lean on our own understanding than trust in the Lord with all our heart. How do we solve this issue then? Jesus has an answer for that as well. When the disciples couldn't cast out a demon, they asked Jesus why they couldn't. His response? They had little faith, and faith is trust!! Jesus went on to tell them that it can only come out through fasting and prayer. And that is what we must do if we ever wish to be freed from the chains which hold us back from following the voice of our Good Shepherd. The gravity of the calling does not matter, what matters is our trust in God. A sheep who trusts his shepherd will go anywhere with him, will we do the same with ours? When He calls us, especially with the hard sayings, the places we want to avoid, the situations we would like to shrink back from, the callings we fear because of uncertainty, let us trust the One who has gone before us and loves us.

The Lord is With The Righteous

Proverbs 15:29

ESV

“The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.”

The thing that turns off Gods leading in our lives is disobedience, sin. Our God will always be next to us no matter where we go, but there's a difference to being next to and being with someone. The Psalmist has said in Psalm 139:8 “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” When it is said of someone that God is with them, it means that they have the Lord on their side. God is an ally to those He is with. God will incline His ear and listen to the prayers of those who live righteously, who follow His commands and walk in His ways. God is proud to be seen with His righteous ones, and loves to listen to their prayers and answer them.

When God is next to someone however, it's similar to what the Psalmist says “If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” God does not support the conduct of the wicked and the fact that they purposefully dwell in hell. In fact, He despises it. Nevertheless, He is always there, whether we acknowledge it or not. He loves the sinner, but abhors the sin. What then is meant by Him being far from the wicked? Well, let's remember that God is light, and more importantly that in Him is no darkness at all. The two can have absolutely no fellowship together, because darkness is the absence of light, therefore they can not be intermingled. However, they can be beside one another. A shadow only casts when light is present. When you look at a shadow, the distinction between the light and the dark is undeniable. God and His relationship with those who make their bed in hell, who follow wicked ways, and deny Christ, is the same way. Though they are polar opposites, they can exist right next to each other, yet it remains the farthest distance in the world.

So if those who are wicked are far from God, then those who are righteous couldn't be any closer! Christ is our light, and when we abide in Him, we abide in the light. As a child of God, my days get to be spent in the freedom of light, and in fellowship with my Father. There is no longer anything or anyone to fear. Those who live in the dark are in a constant state of fear, but for us who have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, we've been given a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. For a long time I thought that because I have the Holy Spirit I shouldn't be subject to troubles and trials, that there shouldnt ever br spiritual battles. No, we have the Holy Spirit to give us power, love, and sound minds to get us through those hardships. I just love how Peter puts it in his first letter, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (I Peter 1:6-7) That is why God allows our sufferings! Job faced the same thing, we all do. We go through immense battles with the world, ourselves, and the Devil as a Christian, and we must take comfort knowing that God is intimately involved in all of it. Our faith is being purified, our hearts conformed to Christ, and our minds are being renewed through every difficult hour we face. God didn't give us His Spirit to deliver us from trouble, He gave it to deliver us in trouble. We have a promise that as we live in the light as He is in the light, He will never fail hear our prayers nor will He leave us to fight our battles alone.

Seasons Come, Seasons Go

Genesis 1:5

NKJV

“God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”

There are seasons of darkness, and seasons of light. This guarantee we have in this life, that there will always be a cycle of night and day. Neither will endure forever, but we can't escape their inevitable coming. Joy will always come in the morning. The evening is not always twelve hours, it can be shorter or longer. Learning to patiently persevere in the night, and receive the blessing that it brings is of utmost importance. If we lose heart then, how will we see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living? The night, the darkness, the blackness, is what makes us appreciate the light. Honestly, I've been living in a lot of night these past seven months. The morning thankfully always comes, but it runs shorter than the night. I am where Peter was before he looked at the Lord after denying Him. Peter was self-pleasing, self-trusting, self-seeking, and full of sin, even though he faithfully followed Christ. This life of self is still strong in me. I've left my boats and nets, but my old self is not yet fully surrendered to Jesus. Only when Peter wept bitterly and was later baptized in the Holy Spirit did he truly become a new creation. He finally understood what it meant to deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow Christ. This is where I've been stuck. The denial of Christ is more active than the denial of self. Those are the only two camps a Christian can live in; denial of self or denial of Christ. I believe the greatest barrier for me coming to the end of myself is my unbelief in Gods ability to do the impossible. I've seen Him do it so many times for others, yet there still remains unbelief that He can do it for me. I have the knowledge of it, but lack faith in it. It is easy to say it, but another to believe it. At this point, my only hope in becoming truly the new creation in Christ, is in Christ. Now it is a waiting game. I trust that God is omniscient and that He fully knows my heart, my prayer, and the desire and will to become one who's life is defined by this: absolute surrender. God didn't leave Peter to continue living the self-life when Christ left to sit at the right hand of God. He didn't say “Good luck! Hope you figure things out!” Rather, He worked through His Spirit in Peter and transformed him completely to be a man of bold faith and self-denial. God will do the same for me, because He shows no partiality and has given me the same Holy Spirit that changed Peter. My Pentecost is on its way!

Come!

Revelation 22:17

NKJV

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

How blessed are we as children of God that we shall never thirst again! Jesus is our eternal wellspring of thirst-quenching water. No matter what we thirst for, what we hunger for, it can be found in Jesus. Come and taste the living water! Taste and see! There is no limit to His love, and there is no limit to who can come to this indescribable Well. I would be unable to tell in words what His waters are like, what it is like to never thirst again. This is something the heart must experience, not the mouth express.

How blessed are we as children of God that we shall never hunger! Jesus is our bread. He said it Himself! “I am the bread of life.” How can He say this we may ask? How can we eat His flesh, and drink His blood? First off, He is the word made flesh. Everything in Jesus reveals and is according to Gods heart displayed in the Old Testament. Jesus is the Living Word. We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Surely, Christ is also the mouth of God, therefore He is our bread! Secondly, as we partake in communion, eating the bread and drinking the wine as we come to His table, we are spiritually eating His flesh, His body which was broken for us, and drinking the blood which He bled for us. We take on and identify with His broken body, His shed blood, and we remember what He has done for our life in the process. Our hunger is satisfied in Him.

How blessed are we as children of God to receive this water and bread for free! Isaiah 55:1 says it all. “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without price.” This is the grace of God on display!! He truly gives us more than we deserve, and all of it without price! All He asks of us is to come! Come to Him through prayer, tell Him what you need, ask Him, seek Him, knock on the doors of heaven, for they will certainly open to you, child of God! Even to those who are not children of God, He says come. For those of us who have gone off the narrow way, who have backslidden, who have yet to even accept Christ, He says come. You don't have to bring anything but yourself, and He will welcome you with open arms as the father welcomed back his prodigal son. I entreat you, come to Him. He has all you need.

Jesus is always beckoning us to come to Him. Gently, gently, He calls our names, He invites us to come to the waters. Gently He speaks, because He knows the tenderness of our hearts. He will not break a bruised reed, nor quench the embers of a heart. Softly He will restore the reed, gently He will fan our embers into a flame. Do not fear to come to Him, bring all of your darkness, all your hurts, all the pain, and all the needs. Even the darkness is as light to Him, and our God is full of mercy and abounding in love for each and every person who comes to Him.