How Great is God’s Mercy?

“His compassion never ends. It is only the Lord’s mercies that have kept us from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his loving-kindness begins afresh each day. My soul claims the Lord as my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him.” Lamentations 3:22-24 (TLB)

A different version says, “His mercies are new every morning.” How awesome is our God?Every morning when I get up, I declare, “This is the day that The Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” I am so appreciative of all that God has done for me that I want Him to know how thankful I am.
Not only that, but that He has granted mercy to me for a whole new day. No matter what happened the day before, as long as I have repented on whatever stupid thing I did or said, I have new mercy for a new day! If only we as humans had that kind of mercy for others when they step out of line. I keep thinking about someone that I know that has gotten so far away from anything we thought would be possible. I keep asking for God’s mercy upon this person as that is what is going to bring them back to God. It is not only God’s mercy but we as humans need to sow mercy into this person as well. Whatever we sow, we will reap in return so I would like to sow mercy as I need mercy every day. We have to remember that God loves us all no matter where we are or what we have done. He just does not like our sin. He loves us too much to leave us the way we are so He keeps changing us and bringing us closer to Him.
When I look back over my life, I required alot of mercy which I received so I would like to be able to extend that mercy to someone else when it is required of me. People will always let us down as in our humanity we are very frail. However, God never will. He is always there willing to help anytime we get into trouble. All we have to do is ask. He is my best friend as I know that He will never leave me or forsake me. He promises me that and He has proved Himself very faithful over the course of my life. It makes me very sad when I see people who believed/loved God, fall into a trap that has been set for them by the enemy. Sometimes it is hard to understand with our small minds but one thing I do know is that God is merciful and faithful so we know that what the devil meant for evil He will turn into good! He is an amazing father. We as His people have to pray and believe that He will do as He has promised.
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of The Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6 (NKJV)

These verses that follow explain exactly what God has done for me. Therefore, I want to be able to do it for others when they need mercy and comfort!

“What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we undergo sufferings for Christ, the more he will shower us with his comfort and encouragement. We are in deep trouble for bringing you God’s comfort and salvation. But in our trouble God has comforted us—and this, too, to help you: to show you from our personal experience how God will tenderly comfort you when you undergo these same sufferings. He will give you the strength to endure.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (TLB)

Do We Forget God?

“But watch out! Be very careful never to forget what you have seen God doing for you. May his miracles have a deep and permanent effect upon your lives! Tell your children and your grandchildren about the glorious miracles he did.” (Deuteronomy 4:9) TLB

Earlier this week I read an article in our local newspaper that really made my heart sad for two different reasons. It was about a young man that grew up in our city here in Canada who had a dual citizenship so decided he was going to enlist in the Marines in the US after 9/11 happened.
He never got in the Marines so ended up in the Army and of course in Iraq. He has been so traumatized by his tour in Iraq that he now has been diagnosed with PTSD. This is the first thing that makes me sad.
The second thing that really bothers me is that he grew up as a Christian even went to a Christian school and since experiencing all the horrifying things that he did, he has basically turned his back on organized religion. He says he is agnostic which I am sure his parents find very upsetting as they tried their best to teach him the ways of God. I totally understand that he is confused greatly and has been traumatized by what he endured in war, yet he doesn’t seem to understand that it was God who kept him alive for His purpose. I am praying for this young man that he will be able to receive the help that he needs spiritually and emotionally. It grieves my heart to see these young men and women suffering from all the trauma they dealt with in a war. My precious nephew who is in the Canadian military did two tours in Afghanistan and he is dealing with the after effects of all the trauma he went through as well as being blown up by IEDs. This man was taught as a little boy all about God as well. My dear mother made sure of that as she felt his parents weren’t doing the job, so he knows, yet he claims to be agnostic! What is it that goes on in these wars to make these men doubt God? I know with him, as well as the other young guy, they saw so much horror. Their buddies being blown up and of course things they don’t even talk about. He really questioned about God after his first tour as he could not understand why God would let this happen. Why does God get the blame for all the bad things that happen? God is good and only good comes from him. It is the evil of man that causes these wars and the devastation that comes with it.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17 ESV)

God kept him alive when he was in the thick of gunfire and patrolling out in the wide open desert. All because I prayed and had other people praying for him as I am sure the parents of this other young man did as well. The interesting part about my nephew, is when he was doing his last tour to Afghanistan, he was the Sergeant in charge of his company of soldiers leading them into combat. Before he left, I was asking him the names of each and every troop he was leading and he sat down with me and gave me every name. He knew why I was asking, he knew I would be praying for them. I had prayed for him on his first tour and told him so. They all came back without any significant injuries so God was watching over him every step of the way. These dear young men do not seem to realize that it was God and only God that brought them through.
My prayer is that someone will come into their lives that can show them how much God loves them, that He has laid His hand upon them and hedged them behind and before. God’s word and truth is in there so I am asking the Holy Spirit to bring it to their remembrance. This should not be with these young people who were willing to lay down their lives for our freedom. To see them aimlessly wandering around their country with no job and no place to call home breaks my heart. God has not forgotten them, they are His creation but they have to ask or invite Him into our circumstances before He will be able to do anything for them. Unfortunately, they turn to drugs or alcohol to numb the pain. He is standing by just waiting as He loves these young people so much and hates to see them suffering like they are. Let us pray for our troops who have served and are still serving. They are a special group of people, very special and they deserve far better treatment than they receive.

“He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber. [I Sam. 2:9; Ps. 127:1; Prov. 3:23, 26; Isa. 27:3.] The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand [the side not carrying a shield]. [Isa. 25:4.] The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. [Ps. 91:5; Isa. 49:10; Rev. 7:16.] The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” [Deut. 28:6; Prov. 2:8; 3:6.] (Psalm 121:3, 5-8 AMP)

These verses became very important to me for my nephew. I prayed them over him every day as to me they were quite appropriate for men patrolling on foot in the desert where IEDs were everywhere!

God’s Watches Over Us

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38, 39 NLT)

As we toured all over the west coast of the US, we saw everyday the amazing love of God in how he provided what we asked for in motel rooms and restaurants. It got to the point, I would say,
“Father, we need wi-fi to book our hotel room.” Of course a few minutes later we would find
public wi-fi! A famous Bible teacher once said, “We should expect God to do these things for us.
Would we not do them for our children whom we love dearly?”
Sunday morning in Redding, CA we are heading to church, Bethel of course. We had been there the year before so “thought” we knew where we were going. We are heading north on I5 as it is on the north end of the city when my husband says, “I believe I just missed the exit. We will go to the next one and turn around.” We were running late as it was, and we really couldn’t afford to be screwing up on directions so I started to pray. “Father, please give us someone who can tell us how to get to Bethel as we don’t seem to know where we are going.” Now, how long does it take to go from one exit to the next on an interstate? Not very long. We reach the next exit, turn left to go over the interstate and get to a set of lights before we can turn back to get on the interstate heading south.
As we are sitting at the lights, there is a CHP car off to our right. We are turning left so when the light turns green, we go. As we start down the ramp to the interstate, all of a sudden the CHP car is behind us with the lights flashing and gives a bleep of his siren. My husbands says to me, “What is he pulling us over for? I haven’t done anything wrong.” Of course we stop and he gets out off his car and comes over to us on the right side. He is telling us that we made an illegal turn as there is no left turn on to the interstate – we needed to turn right. To this day, we did not see the sign in our rush to get to church. Now this is a witness to a police officer! He takes down my husband’s licence number on a little tablet he had in his hand and he is asking all sorts of questions about us riding on a bike, how long etc. Certainly, we were not about to argue with the law so we are polite realizing that he is only doing his job. After he lectures my husband for a few minutes, he says, “Where are going?” Well, this is a little embarrassing but my husband says, “Bethel” He says, “Oh, you just go down this ramp carefully, get on the interstate and get off at the next exit.”
He gave us all the directions we needed, told us to have a good day and got in his car. He followed us down the ramp to make sure we got on the interstate safely and off he went! All we could do was sit there, thank God for this nice young officer and laugh! That young guy got blessed that day as I prayed protection over him, and that he would have the best shift he has had in along time! I asked God for help and I got it! God will use whoever he can to help his people even in the form of a CHP officer, when you think you are in trouble! I keep wondering, was he an angel watching over us when we were not paying attention like we needed to??
By the way, we still got to church on time!

“He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand [the side not carrying a shield]. The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” (Psalm 121:3-8 AMP)

God is good

“O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good! Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him.” (Psalm 34:8 AMP)

God is a good God and He loves us all unconditionally. This may not seem all that important to you, but when I heard that, I was very excited. You see although I accepted Jesus as a young child, I grew up in a lot of religion. My image of God was as long as I was doing good, He was happy with me, if I wasn’t, then He was not so pleased. That was the perception I had of my mother which many years later, like God, I found out was totally wrong! My Dad showed God’s love everywhere he went to everyone he saw, so I was kind of mixed up in my perception of God. Because of this warped perception, I gave up on living a godly life as I figured I could never achieve that. Well, without the help of the Holy Spirit, we certainly cannot! Therefore, I walked away from all the religion and lived on my own (I thought) for quite a few years! Of course, God never gives up and never lets us go no matter how far we try to run. I had never given up on Him, just the religion and the holiness that I felt I could never attain. When you hear God getting blamed for all the bad things that happen, you are quite confused as a child as God has no bad in Him.

“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” (John 10:10 AMP)
I heard this summed up at a Benny Hinn crusade quite a few years ago and it sure helped me in realizing that God is good all the time. Benny said after preaching for a few minutes, “God is good, the devil is bad. You choose.” I wish you could have seen all the people that rushed forward to accept Jesus that night!

Now, many years later, I know God is good and does not bring the bad things that happen in life to come to pass. You see, when I was 26 years old, I had just given birth 20 days before to our beautiful daughter when my husband suddenly passed away. That certainly got my attention and I started to call on God in my desperation and of course He was there even when I had not been faithful to Him. That started me on a journey that took many years of refining to get me to where I am today. Certainly have not attained but definitely not where I used to be!
In the worst of circumstances, God is always there working behind the scenes providing all that is needed to make it through that day! I have seen His goodness in all my life but especially over the past 32 years since I had to walk through that valley. He has brought me out and put a new song in my heart. Oh, He is my best friend as He never leaves us or forsakes us!
I so love the Psalms and when I read these verses many years ago, I knew that is exactly what He did for me! I was in a deep, dark pit of despair and He reached down and pulled me out. How can I not praise Him for His goodness?

“I WAITED patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up out of a horrible pit [a pit of tumult and of destruction], out of the miry clay (froth and slime), and set my feet upon a rock, steadying my steps and establishing my goings. And He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many shall see and fear (revere and worship) and put their trust and confident reliance in the Lord. [Ps. 5:11.] Many, O Lord my God, are the wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; no one can compare with You! If I should declare and speak of them, they are too many to be numbered.” (Psalm 40:1-3, 5 AMP)