TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 13TH NOVEMBER 2024)
“I was also blameless before Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;With the pure You will show Yourself pure; and with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. For You will save the humble people, but will bring down haughty looks.” Psalms 18:23-27 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 318TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
The power of God’s mercy and love is incomparable. We are alive today because of it. It is responsible for the deliverance, breakthroughs, miracles, divine visitations, and outpouring of the Holy Spirit we have been receiving from the LORD.
It’s been a season of looking at matters of God’s mercy.
God’s mercy is responsible for our sleeping and waking up each morning, because many of us do not even deserve to wake up because of our level of wickedness. That is why Heaven roars each time we do not show mercy to our fellow humans having being beneficiaries of God’s mercy ourselves.
The Bible teaches that, if God’s Mercy says “no” to any judgment that we deserve, and we do not say “yes” to those who ask for our mercy, by cancelling any punishment they deserve, even our going to Heaven as Christians will be at risk.
Truths like these are to be repeated over and over because of their eternal consequence.
Many of us do not know that after accepting Jesus Christ as LORD and saviour, and remaining in Him, the next qualification for making Heaven is showing mercy to others. The word says,
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-15 NKJV
There is so much in this scripture. It teaches us why we must live a life that shows mercy to others. It shows us the one condition for making Heaven; forgiveness of sins. How important that is.
Understand that there is no one who is without sin. So, people will not enter Heaven because they are holy; none is holy, no not one (Romans 3:10). People will enter Heaven because they have been forgiven of their sins and made holy by the Holy God, using the redemption instruments in His kingdom.
IN OTHER WORDS, YOU WILL NOT GO TO HEAVEN BECAUSE YOU ARE HOLY, YOU WILL GO BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN MADE HOLY.
You will go because your sins have been forgiven and you have been made holy. If you want to make Heaven therefore, you must strive to have your sins forgiven, and strive to be made holy by the blood of the lamb, the Spirit of the LORD and the Holy Word of God.
The primary reason many will make Heaven is forgiveness of sins.
You see, if you give your life to Christ, and spend the rest of your days living according to His ways and doing His blessed will, you must not ignore the mercy principle. Showing mercy to others is part of His way, will or word that must be honored. Every one of us must understand that the work of living a life that forgives the sins of those who sin against us is paramount.
As we forgive the sins of others, we make way for our own sins to be forgiven. This must be hammered over and over again, so that we can stop living in bitterness, unforgiveness, and etc. We must understand that, it takes men whose sins have been forgiven to make Heaven, and be those men by forgiving the sins of others.
When God forgives your sin, He will go forward to make you holy. That is how His kingdom works.
Every child of God must understand that after repentance from sins, the next walk of faith God expects from us is a walk of loving others; showing them mercy and forgiving them their trespasses against us. That was the flow of truth we saw yesterday.
It should be the flow of truth forever so long as this Heavenly race is concerned. So many leave a life of, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” That is a life of eternal damnation. The life of eternal peace is not lived that way.
Sadly, what we call Christianity today, has become like that in many aspects. We have become like worshipers of false gods, that show no mercy.
I remember a worshiper of a false god saying to me, “there is no mercy or forgiveness in our worship.” That once one offends the gods, he goes for it. You can even see that in our African Movies.
The gods do not forgive because Satan has no capacity for mercy. But our God is different. He wants us to be different.
His kingdom stands out because of His everlasting love for us, the very love He wants us to extend to others. I have said this before, that it is only in God’s kingdom you find unconditional love, great mercies and pardon for sins, and only in true Christianity you find love, mercy and forgiveness!
YES, HEAVEN WILL BE FULL OF PEOPLE WHOSE SINS ARE FORGIVEN.
It will be full of ex-sinners who were forgiven; ex-harlots, ex-adulterers, ex-extortionist, ex- liars, ex-murderers, ex-fornicators, ex-drug barons, ex-homosexuals, ex-lesbians, ex-terrorists like Saul who later became Paul, ex-witches and wizards. Hallelujah!
It will be full of sinners turned saints by the power of the blood of Jesus (a sacrifice of God’s mercy). That is why the Bible calls on even the worse sinner to come to the LORD. He or she will have their sins forgiven and made holy by the redemption instruments in God’s kingdom.
A season of looking at matters of God’s mercy can be a season of restoring back the shine of God to your walk and talk with Him, by beginning a fresh journey of faith, where you walk in love, showing mercy to those you have decided not to show mercy to.
However, in showing mercy, you must be guided by grace and truth, and be careful not to allow your righteous act to become a breeding ground for wickedness.
Those who frustrate God’s mercy (people who use it as a breeding ground for wickedness) are usually punished in the kingdom of God. Only those who make a proper use of it are usually blessed.
So, if your acts of love and mercy become a breeding ground for wickedness to grow and thrive, you will be in trouble yourself because you will be over stepping the bounds GOD has set. I have seen Christians destroying themselves by over stepping the bounds God has set in the release of Mercy. That is when they become more merciful than GOD Himself, and is very dangerous!
For instance, in 1st Kings chapter 13, the young prophet from Judah got himself killed because of that.
If he had not shown mercy to the king God judged and exposed his spiritual safety codes in the process, perhaps he would not have been caught by the false Old Prophet, and killed by a lion. When it comes to showing mercy, God Himself is the standard – the very standard we must follow.
The book of Ecclesiastes in the Holy Scriptures, teaches that we should not be over righteous because we will destroy ourselves. David knew that very well. That was why he stated what we find in our devotional text this morning.
A MAJOR HIGHLIGHT OF THE TEXT SAYS,
“With the merciful you will show yourself merciful; with a blameless man you will show yourself blameless; with the pure you will show yourself pure; and with the devious you will show yourself shrewd. For you will save the humble people, but will bring down haughty looks.” Psalm 18:25-27
We can glean truths on how to show mercy to others from this scripture. You show mercy to people according to their hearts, and this scripture presents four kinds of hearts. It presents;
1. The Merciful Heart
2. The blameless Heart
3. The Pure Heart, and
4. The Devious Heart.
If a person with a merciful, blameless or pure heart offend you, they will definitely apologize and seek for forgiveness and mercy. You will feel the genuineness of their repentance in whatever they say or do to obtain mercy from you.
You are to forgive them unconditionally, because your forgiveness will never be used to hurt you again, neither will it harden them.
But when a person with a devious heart offends you, and either apologize or not, you are to forgive them conditionally, because if there are no conditions to your forgiveness, they will use the kindness to hurt you again and again. When they do not hurt you, it will harden them.
So, as you forgive them, create conditions around your life that will not make them reach you again to either hurt you or behave in a hardened way. If you do not do that, you might slip into hate when you see them hardened despite what they did to you.
Yes, there are people that forgiveness hardens, people mercy does not soften their hearts. You are to forgive and keep them very far from you because God does not want our mercifulness to become a breeding ground of wickedness.
God show mercy to people who are merciful, blameless, or pure at heart, when they sin and seek for mercy. He does not deny them mercy. We must do the same. But He also treat the devious differently. He creates conditions that will not allow them to hurt His purposes or become hardened after forgiving them. We must also do the same.
It is my prayer that God might use these words to continue giving us an inheritance among they that are sanctified! AMEN!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY
“For You will light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall.
As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” Psalms 18:28-30 NKJV