Devotions

For years, people were accustomed to hearing me preach repentance and holiness. But they began to question me when my messages started to focus more on mercy, reconciliation and hope. There is a simple explanation for this.

When I traveled as an evangelist, I didn’t have an opportunity to get to know the people I preached to. I was never in one place long enough to discover all the hurts, needs and burdens of God’s people. As a pastor at Times Square Church, I’ve heard firsthand of all the troubles and trials endured by those in the congregation, as well as in churches around the world.

Beloved, I have discovered that God’s people are hurting deeply. They are being tempted and tried and tossed about by great adversities and needs. The problems in families are overwhelming. Many sheep are groaning in misery and pain — hurting, thirsty, spiritually crippled, living from crisis to crisis.

God has made it clear that I cannot take a club to His sheep. Instead, tender mercy is needed. Even the fiery prophet Jeremiah cried, “O Lord, correct me, but with justice; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing” (Jeremiah 10:24). Jeremiah was saying, “Lord, be tender with me, because I am in no condition to hear anger or wrath, or I’ll be reduced to nothing.”

God will never use His Word to reduce you to nothing when you are hurting. All He asks of His people is a repentant, broken spirit. He responds with mercy to our crying need.

Rest in His mercy and love, for He pities His children. 

The Spirit has been making it clear to me that all my praying is totally in vain unless I pray in faith. I can weep, fast, intercede, agonize and travail in prayer, yet make no impact with the Lord at all — unless I am doing it all with simple, childlike faith.

The Word says, “Let not that man [the doubter] suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:7).

The Lord commands us to trust Him. Yet, often we have so little confidence in Him, so little faith in His willingness and desire to answer our heart-cry. When we get to heaven, we will be amazed to discover all the blessings, peace and power we had at our disposal but did not appropriate because of our weak faith.

I challenge you to increase your faith. Ask the Lord to flood your soul with confidence in His willingness to over-answer your sincere prayers.

Do you want an increase in faith? When you go to prayer again, use the following Scriptures to reason with the Lord. He will not deny His own Word.

• “Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him” (Psalm 62:8).
• “He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler” (Psalm 91:4).
• “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You” (Psalm 56:3).
• “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him” (Proverbs 30:5).
• “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me . . . and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

Hold on by faith! He will answer you.

I recommend you take the time to read the powerful words of Psalms 142 and 143 to encourage your faith. As I was reading them, I wondered what David was going through when he said, “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path” (142:3). He repeats this in 143:4: “My spirit is overwhelmed with me; my heart within me is distressed.” David is actually saying to God, “I am drowning in trouble. I am under attack by my enemies. It is bringing me low.” He cried to the Lord, “Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low . . . Bring my soul out of prison” (142:6-7).

Beloved, these words are written for our sake, for our instruction. Here is encouragement for all of God’s people who are overwhelmed by troubles and afflictions.

The truth is, most of us live in a world where life can be absolutely overwhelming at times. Like David, we face a flood of troubles; we are afflicted even in our righteousness.

It is in our overwhelming times we learn to seek God and learn to cry out in our pain. David said, “I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare before Him my trouble” (142:2). “In Your faithfulness answer me” (143:1). Are you even now overwhelmed by circumstances in your life? Do what David did:

“I spread out my hands to You; my soul longs for You like a thirsty land” (143:6).

Be encouraged. God has everything under control! He will meet your need right on time.

In Revelation, Christ refers to Himself as “HE WHO OPENS AND SHUTS THE DOORS” (see Revelation 3:7). This was in a letter sent to the believers in ancient Philadelphia, a church the Lord complimented for having kept the word of His patience and never denying His name. Simply put, in their most trying times, these people stood faithfully on God’s Word. They did not accuse the Lord of neglecting them or turning a deaf ear to their cries.

Evidently, Satan had come against them with lies. His principalities and powers of darkness, lying spirits pouring out of the very bowels of hell, say that God has shut every door, that He isn’t worthy of worship and faith. But these believers, whom Jesus said were of little strength, kept on trusting, waiting patiently for God to put the key in the door and open it. He holds the key to every shut door — and He alone sets before us open doors.

Here is what the Lord promised them, and it is our promise as well:

“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (3:10).

But you — because you still trust His promises, and are willing to die in faith even if you do not see the promises fulfilled — you will be kept from this worldwide temptation to fall into unbelief. God has heard your cry, and He knows the timing, the very hour, to open all doors. So, never give up. Never doubt. Stand on His promises. He will not fail you!

“Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox” (Proverbs 14:4, ESV).

The book of Proverbs says you can have a clean barn but there won’t be any oxen in it. 

You can have a “clean church” where everything is in order and structurally perfect but we want the oxen in it. If you have been around oxen you know that they poop on the ground and they snort and they’re smelly and they kick things — and it’s a mess!  

Would you join me in ministering in a messy church? Would you join me in asking God to send us the messiest people of this city?

Where does your mind go when I refer to the messiest people? Does it go to the drug addict down in the alley? Or to Chapel Hills Mall where people are shopping with their gold credit card and driving their Lexus? Because they are all messy people. When I talk about messy people I’m talking about me and I’m talking about you. I’m also talking about the addicted and the homeless and the foreigner and the people who aren’t like us — just all of us together. And the simple truth is, we all need Jesus!

Amen? We just need Jesus. We need Him in our churches. We need Him in our lives. We need Him in our families. We need Him in our ministry. We need Him to empower us to live out the gospel that He’s called us to. The daily distribution (see Acts 6:1-2) is done by messy people helping messy people and it’s not always done right. But I thank God there are some advocates in the church that say, “We want to do this right! We want to do this well . . . for His glory.”