Devotions

A lot of you look at your own life and determine that you’re not worthy of mercy. That’s a common affliction. The danger of it is that you are putting yourself in the place of God, deciding, “If I were God, I would not grant mercy to myself.” 

Look at Ezekiel 22; the nation of Israel was in a terrible place. The litany of crimes and abuse that the prophet wrote down makes you want to cover your face and weep. We look at this situation and say, “God, surely this nation is deserving of judgment.” 

Even when Israel was in this miserable condition, God was looking for an opportunity to show mercy. “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one” (Ezekiel 22:30). There was nobody who would agree that God could show mercy. 

Sometimes, you look in the mirror and think back to what you’ve been doing in the last week or month or year, and you say, “God, surely I’m deserving of your judgment for the things I’ve spoken and for the way I’ve been living.”

You can’t ever earn mercy. It only exists if it’s the only thing left. Before that point, you’re working for something, but it’s a payment, not mercy. Jesus didn’t come for you because you have it all together but because you don’t. He said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Luke 5:32, NKJV). He came for those who have no plans left and who are in the weakest state they’ve ever been in. 

When we get to the point where we can’t go forward, God says, “Well, let me do it for you.” Scripture tells us, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore he says: ‘When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.’” (Ephesians 4:7-8). He took our captivity captive, and he gave us abilities that can only come from God in order to be people that we couldn’t be without God. We are told that we are now righteous through Jesus Christ and given the promise of eternal life in God’s presence. 

^{Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. In May of 2020, he transitioned into a continuing role as General Overseer of Times Square Church, Inc.}

“Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1, ESV). 

David’s cry was like those of so many Christians I’ve known for decades. “Why are you so distant from me while I go through these horrible things? Why do you stand so far away from me as I suffer?”

In some seasons of trial, we’re assaulted by terrors, fearing we’ll never emerge from our struggle and that maybe God has abandoned us. I’ve been there, and I can tell you that Psalm 10 has the power to mark a profound shift in your life.

To obtain true confidence in God’s Word, our souls often have to go into a deep valley. To gain the kind of trust God wants for us, we may be called to wrestle with his Word. Our most sincere prayer may sometimes be “Lord, I don’t get this. Your Word doesn’t line up with what is happening in my life. Nothing about this makes sense.” 

God honors that prayer. He already knows what is inside of us, and he knows every question we hide and every emotion we repress. God wants to bring it all out of the hiding place we’ve created and into his presence. 

Again and again, David cried out to God, “Lord, please hear my groaning. Attend to my cries.” We know this from David’s testimony in previous psalms. He spoke of having weak bones and a weary spirit. When he finally confessed his heart and made his plea to the Lord, new life sprang up in him. 

Jesus is faithful to bring this to pass in all of our lives. Our role is simple: to cry honestly before God, to call on him with every request, to commit all our fears to him and to stand confidently that he will raise us to new heights. 

Our trials are never a one-time experience. Other crises will surely come, yet with each one, there will be a profound difference. We won’t look at our battles as if God is using them to punish us. Instead, with our history of going through valleys, we’ll see our battles as training ground for warfare, and we’ll rejoice in God’s faithfulness to us. 

In whatever way God chooses to use these crises in our lives, he will bring us through as victors and not as victims. 

^{This devotional has been adapted from Gary Wilkerson’s book, The Altar of Our Hearts: An Expository Devotional on the Psalms.}

Every time you show mercy, every time you are kind and gracious to another believer, you are giving comfort. 

A man from our church stopped me after a recent service and said, “Brother Wilkerson, let me tell you why I attend this church. My ninety-year-old mother just recently passed away. For the past four years, she was bedridden, and I took care of her. At the church I used to attend, I had to leave Sunday service early to go and tend to her. After a while, the pastor got tired of it, and before the whole congregation, he told me, ‘If you’re going to go, go now, before I start to preach.’” 

Then the man said, “Here at Times Square Church, no one has ever said a word to me about leaving early. That may seem like a small thing to you, but to me, it’s a very big thing. I have not had to explain to anyone here that I was going to leave early to get home and take care of my mother." 

Mercy must be shown in ordinary, day-to-day things. Sometimes, mercy can be as simple as a smile that conveys understanding or an arm around someone’s shoulder. It can be as simple as a sympathetic countenance or a word to someone who is hurting. 

You can never offer mercy if you are constantly thinking of yourself. How can you offer comfort to others when you have not yet learned to draw comfort in God’s mercy to you? 

Scripture teaches, “Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation” (2 Corinthians 1:4-6, NKJV). 

Merciful Christians are the Lord’s comforters. They can show and speak mercy and lovingkindness because they have experienced the incredible comfort of God’s mercy. 

I remember being a young evangelist preaching at a crusade before 5,000 people in Los Angeles. At least 2,000 of those people were Christian hippies. They had just been born again and were brought out of the hippie culture. Many of these young people lay sprawled before me on the floor, barefoot with long hair and wearing tattered clothes. 

That night, I was dressed in a spiffy blue blazer with a sharp tie, the latest bell-bottom slacks and shiny shoes. When I took the stage, I started railing on those kids. I said, “Some of you look awful. Put on some decent clothes and get a haircut before you come back tomorrow night!” 

After the service, I was met backstage by a delegation of those long-haired, hippie Christians. One of them ran his fingers down my fashionable coat collar and said, “What a beautiful suit!” He looked up at me then and said, “Brother David, we couldn’t see Jesus tonight.”

“Why not?” I asked. 

“Your clothes got in the way,” he replied. 

I had considered them to be too dressed down, and they had considered me to be too dressed up. Those kids were not making fun of me. They were sincere. They wept as they told me, “We believe you’re a man of God, but you’re missing something.”

I know now that I lacked mercy. I never railed on that subject again. God taught me a hard lesson, one I prayed to remain in my heart. 

Many Christians think it is enough to be pure and sanctified. They think that is the number one issue and that all they need to do is abstain from evil, come out from the world and remain clean. As long as they don’t smoke, drink, fornicate or commit adultery, they think they are pure. 

No one has preached stronger messages on holiness and purity over the years than I have; but according to James, purity is merely the first matter of concern: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17, NKJV).

Beloved, yes, we are to be clean first, but mercy, grace and kindness are to follow. 

Jesus told a parable about a servant who had been forgiven a great debt (see Matthew 18:23-35). This man found grace and mercy with his master, but then he took that grace and mercy for granted. Immediately after the servant was forgiven, he went out and began to choke a man who owed him a small, insignificant amount, demanding, “Pay me what you owe!” When the debtor asked the man for mercy, he refused and had the debtor jailed. 

Why was this man so judgmental? Why did he lack mercy? It was because he did not consider his own unworthiness. He did not understand how hopeless and exceedingly sinful his own life was. He did not appreciate the danger he had been in, how close to death he had been before he had been shown mercy. 

When the master found out what the ungrateful man had done to the other debtor, he had him thrown into jail for life. 

While I was working on this message, the Lord stopped me and said, “David, forget your message right now. I want to talk to you about your judgmental spirit, your lack of mercy.” 

I thought, “Me, Lord? I am one of the most merciful preachers in America.” However, the Lord began to review all the things I had said to young preachers, things I had blurted out sharply. He reminded me of all the insensitive things I said to people who had failed, those whom I had given up on. 

That session absolutely wiped me out. I wept before the Lord. When I asked God how this could be, he answered, “You have forgotten what I did for you, the incredible mercy I showed to you. How many times did I dig you out of something that could have destroyed you? You wouldn’t be here without my mercy.” 

Beloved, before you can offer mercy to someone else, you must look at the pit where you would be without God’s mercy and forgiveness. Only then can you say, “Oh, God, I know what you did for me, and you can do the same for my friend who is in sin. At one time, I was just as wicked in your sight. I cannot judge this friend because you showed mercy and forgiveness to me.”