TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 12TH NOVEMBER 2024)
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 317TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Indeed, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. What a word to start our day. With deep gratitude to our creator, we receive the word.
Friend, we all need God’s mercies upon our lives, but sometimes they will never come because we fasted and prayed for them, they will come because we are merciful to others.
We indeed need God’s mercies to run our lives, but we must know how that happens.
Yes, we have been taught that if you need God’s mercies ask for them, but most times, God’s mercy will never come to us that way; it will never come to us because we ask. It will only come when we are merciful to others.
So, no matter how much you repent of a sin, and plead to God for forgiveness, the Bible is clear that if you are the kind of person who do not have mercy on others and forgive their sins against you, God will never forgive yours.
Mercy is not obtained at the threshing floor in such circumstances, or at the horn of the altar; It is obtained when you forgive others who sin against you.
It is obtained when you walk in mercy towards others.
You may be spending your days at the Throne Room of God where God’s mercies live or comes from.
But if you have a heart that hold on to offences, grudges or seeks vengeance, you will never obtain mercy in the throne of Grace, and never find grace to help you in time of need.
This is where people fall sick and die without healing sometimes, even if the most anointed people pray for them. It is the reason you see people suffering and praying to the LORD for help, and it seems God is dead.
No one who does not show mercy to others, will ever find grace to help them in time of need.
They will never find God’s grace bringing deliverance from any demonic or spiritual attack to them, healing from a disease, supernatural supply in time of need, or favor when they need one.
You will find them living very tight and troubling lives, because life become difficult when God’s grace is not running it; and understand that, God’s grace will never run a life that deny itself God’s mercies.
Yes, it will never run any life that deny itself God’s mercies in any way.
SADLY, WE DENY OURSELVES GOD’S MERCY IN SO MANY WAYS. IN FACT, A LOT OF US ARE BUILT TO DENY OURSELVES GOD’S MERCIES.
One way we are built to deny ourselves God’s mercies, is by not showing mercy to others, like stated earlier. The rule remains, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. It did not say blessed are the prayerful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Neither did it say, blessed are the givers, preachers, prophets, church planters, or tearful eyes, for they shall obtain mercy. It says blessed are the merciful.
You will never substitute that for anything. You must be merciful first to obtain mercy through prayer, giving or whatever.
Understand that, if you are not merciful, you are actually denying yourself Gods mercy. You are indirectly not being merciful to yourself.
Yes, a lot of us live lives that deny us God’s mercy; we make decisions, follow passions, and think thoughts against people and sometimes against God’s principles that deny us His mercies; we do so many things that deny us God’s mercies, thereby hindering His grace from running our lives and helping us in time of need.
I reiterate again that, one of the things we do that deny us God’s mercies, is not being merciful on others.
That is why despite prayers, we will still find ourselves fainting in the day of adversity, and seeing no help from the LORD when the enemy comes to take away our joy, peace, health, security, God given relationships, business opportunities, promotions in the office and etc.
We find ourselves losing our lives while we should not, losing our jobs when we ought not to loose them, going hungry and starving without any help coming supernaturally, and facing other life horrors with no help from Heaven.
If you shut the bowels of mercy to someone who needs it from you, you have shut the gates of mercies upon yourself, you have denied yourself God’s mercy.
There is another way we deny ourselves God’s mercies, and that way is the way of rebellion and persistent unfaithfulness, despite God showing us mercies.
YES, THE WAY OF NOT USING GOD’S MERCIES ON US TO REPENT OR TURN AWAY FROM SIN.
For instance, you find someone aborting babies, successfully, not because of a medical condition or other justifiable life saving medical and moral reasons, but because of covering the sin of sexual immorality with no consequences, not using that act of mercy from the LORD to stop.
For many, the first Child was aborted successfully, the second and the third, fourth fifth, sixth, seventh and etc. without consequences, yet they are not fearing God enough to say, “no, I must stop living this kind of life. Even though nothing consequential is happening to me because of it, I must stop frustrating God’s mercies.”
We deny ourselves God’s mercies when we do not make use of the mercies He has shown us; the withdrawal of punishment for sin we have seen and experienced, to live right or do the right thing in life.
If God is showing you mercy, and not allowing you suffer the penalty for bad decisions, life mistakes, and sinful living, make use of it and stop making bad decisions, living a sinful life or making terrible mistakes.
That is one way to keep the grace of God running your life, and making it beautiful.
God has spoken to us this morning. I believe we have heeded His word.
He wants our lives to be run by His grace nonstop. He wants our lives beautiful and glorious, not dark, shameful, reproached, laughed at, ridiculed, and inglorious.
He wants us to get the best He has made available for us on earth through His grace. But a lot of that will depend on how we handle His mercies in our lives.
It is important to note that, you could be showing mercy to others, but if you are not showing mercy on yourself enough to repent from any evil you are doing, especially after seeing God’s mercies protect you from the punishment or consequences of the same, a time will come that the grace of the LORD will no longer be running your life, giving way to a life of shame, poverty, illnesses, reproach, mockery, and all other forms of difficult living.
It is my prayer that we all make use of this word from the LORD, to make Bible decisions that will keep God’s mercies flowing in our lives, and His grace running every detail of them. Amen
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses, At the openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words:
“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke; Surely, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.
Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you.
“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke.
Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies.
For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them; But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil.” Proverbs 1:20-33 NKJV