Devotions

God's merciful love is always revealed in response to a cry from the heart. The Bible has a lot to say about that humble cry for deliverance. “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God; he heard my voice from his temple, and my cry came before him, even to his ears” (Psalm 18:6 NKJV). “Many times he delivered them; but they rebelled in their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry” (Psalm 106:43-44).

A cry to God will always be answered! No one is too wicked or hopeless if they reach out to him in humility. The story of King Manasseh, one of the most wicked kings of Israel, proves it.

“He raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image…he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger” (see 2 Kings 21:2-6).

“So Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel” (2 Chronicles 33:9-10).

Is there hope for someone so far from God, so possessed by evil and darkness? Yes! Manasseh ended up a prisoner in a foreign nation, bound with chains. In his affliction, he cried out and God heard him, forgave him and restored him.

“Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to him; and he received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. …He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem; and he cast them out of the city” (2 Chronicles 33:12-13,15).

This word of hope, forgiveness, mercy, love and restoration is for you. Hear God’s Word, repent, then be made whole and walk with him! There is no sin that cannot be forgiven when we ask. We are never too far down to be healed and restored.

“Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’” (John 5:8 NKJV). The crippled man at the Pool of Bethesda had likely heard some of the stories about a man named Jesus healing people throughout the region. What he didn’t know was that Jesus knew about him too. He came to this poor man, lying by the pool in his misery and sorrow, and was moved with compassion. All Jesus asked was that the man believe his words and act on them. “Rise! Take up your bed. Walk away from this scene.”

Now this man, helpless and in despair, faced the biggest decision of his pain-filled life. A word of resurrection hope had come to him, and he was being challenged: Rise by faith and be made whole, or lie there in self-pity and die alone. He could have refused to move, thinking, “It won't work. Out of this multitude, why would God heal little old me? I'm destined to die in this condition.” He had to believe because Jesus could not have raised him up against his will. It was now or never!

When people around questioned why and how Jesus did this, he answered, “‘Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do; for whatever he does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself does; and he will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel’” (John 5:19-20). It was God's will, love and desire to make this man completely whole.

It is difficult to believe God still loves you when you are down and weak or when you feel worthless and wonder why he even cares. It takes childlike faith to accept that love and say, “Lord, on your word alone I will arise and walk with you.”

You don't have to understand all the doctrines about sin and righteousness. You may not even know Jesus in a deep and meaningful way. Don’t worry. Those things will come later. All you need to do today is take the first step of obedience, rise and turn to the Lord. “If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority” (John 7:17).

The men and women who were headed for the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost (see Acts 1 and 2) loved Jesus dearly. They had been taught in the school of Christ by the Lord himself. Some had performed miracles, healed the sick and cast out demons. They were compassionate and soul-loving, but they weren’t yet qualified to be his witnesses.

They had been nearby when he sweat drops of blood, seen him hanging on the cross, and stood at his empty tomb. They had even watched in awe as he ascended into heaven! Yet they still were not ready to represent him. Why? Because they needed the power of the Holy Spirit to face down the fearsome, corrupt religious leaders of the day.

The Upper Room experience – the day the Holy Spirit fell on the apostles and other followers of Jesus – made all the difference.

Hear Peter’s powerful statement to the chief priests: “And we are his witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:32 NKJV). Through the words of the Holy Ghost speaking through Peter, the priests “were furious and plotted to kill them” (Acts 5:33).

Stephen came next, filled with the Holy Ghost, confronting the Sanhedrin court just before his death. “’You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you’…When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth” (Acts 7:51, 54).

When you emerge from seeking God full of his Spirit, you can stand boldly before anyone, and your witness will provoke one of two reactions. They will either cry out, “What must I do to be saved?” or they will resist and challenge you. You will speak words that cut to the heart.

Miracles don’t reside within the walls of a church building. The mighty wind of the Spirit blew all the people out into the streets, into the marketplace. Had we been in the Upper Room looking for revival, supernatural wind and tongues of fire, we would have been directed outside to 120 witnesses on the streets, preaching Jesus in the power of the Holy Ghost. That's where the revival is. That's the outpouring. The wind, the fire, the Spirit — it's now in God's witnesses!

In the last of this three-part series, Gary and Kelly Wilkerson share what they have learned about God’s faithfulness and the power of prayer during times of family crisis.

 Author Elizabeth Stone says about parenting, “The decision to have a child – it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” In good times and bad, this is the perfect picture of what it means to be a parent.

As our sons Eliot and Evan battled their addictions, they were out of our reach, yet we felt the full force of their pain. We were sure of only two things: God was bigger than the storm, and our only hope was in him.

How do you pray for your children when Satan attacks? We began by being honest. Psalm 51:6 says, “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart” (ESV). God can work with an honest heart, so we laid it all — sorrow, fear, confusion and shame — before him. The Holy Spirit gave us direction. Paul says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).

Then we got specific. When you’re in trouble, tell God exactly what you need. Our sons needed a miracle, but they also needed concrete help with counselors, physicians, friends and family who could help guide them back to health and wholeness. We as parents needed patience and wisdom to lead our family on the long road ahead. All of us needed grace and peace.

Finally, we prayed with persistence and faith. Don’t ever underestimate the power of these two things. Never let go; never stop praying. Stand firm in the knowledge that God will never let go of you. We felt his faithfulness as never before during this time. He proved that he always keeps his promise to be with us through everything to the end.

Today, Eliot and Evan are both serving the Lord, and we rejoice and daily thank God for his unending mercy and grace on their lives. If your family is going through a storm, we pray that you too will find your hope and strength in him. He is faithful!

Gary and Kelly’s full story is available on the Gary Wilkerson Podcast.

Paul faced a choice when he found himself in the midst of a storm. He was most likely chained in the bottom of the ship, as was the common practice for transporting prisoners. When he warned the people not to undertake this journey, he was scoffed at and scorned. The voice of truth is constantly set aside as bigoted and out of touch. Eventually it is locked away in the same way that Paul was relegated to the bottom of the ship.

Imagine the unspeakable hardship that Paul once again faced. Nevertheless, in the midst of it all, Paul chose in his heart to forgive these men. He stood before them and said, “For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told” (Acts 27:23-25, ESV).

 Isn’t that amazing? Paul, once an intolerant Pharisee who hauled people out of their homes and tortured them to get them to blaspheme the name of Christ, was now moved with compassion for his oppressors!

We must have the compassion of God flowing out through us. How do we get to such a place? Not merely by study. We might wish we could take a Bible course somewhere and come out compassionate, but it just doesn’t work that way. Compassion comes by allowing the one who already won the battle for kindness to do his work in and through us.

I am well aware that I cannot forgive or love with that kind of divine love, and neither can you. Human effort cannot produce the kind of compassion required to reach a perishing world or the kind of forgiveness that the greatest depths of depravity demand. It is supernatural and must be worked in us by God. Try as you might to love people in your own strength, you will find that words of grace and forgiveness will not be in your mouth unless they are supernaturally put there by Almighty God.

Learning to love the unlovely requires a change of heart and a molding of character that God must work into your life by the Holy Spirit.

_{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.}