TODAY’S DEVOTION (Sunday 8th June 2025)
“Now therefore, O our God, hearken unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies’ sake.
O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God, because thy city and thy people are called by thy name.” Daniel 9:17-19 ASV
WELCOME TO THE 159TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
We are on a pilgrimage. Not just believers, but the entire human race. A secular artist once sang saying, “this world is not our home, we are just passing through.” That was a huge message from one who was not a preacher but just human who understood the facts of life.
I sat down to watch the documentary of the late Billy Graham and saw how he moved from the son of a poor farmer to a man regarded as America’s pastor. He had no church in his days but touched the lives of so many people, but finally he bowed out of time and stepped into eternity, where he would live forever.
I was touched by how God can use a man who is properly yielded. I was also touched by his philosophy of death. I said to myself, “one day, I will bow out of time too and step into eternity, where I will be forever.” It is a common destiny of humanity.
Friend, either you are young or old, saved or unsaved, righteous or unrighteous, educated or uneducated, famous or not, Godly or ungodly, the passing of a human life from time to eternity through the process of death is the destiny of every human. Everyone is a pilgrim on this earth, everyone is just passing through. The Bible says:
“Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well.
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 NKJV
The question is, when your spirit returns to God who gave it at the end of your days on earth, where will He place it? In hell or in Heaven? The answer lies in our relationship with the LORD Jesus. For believers, our pilgrimage will end us in Heaven, but for the unsaved, it will end them in hell.
Why will it end them in hell? The answer lies in the life they lived while here on earth. There is a life to live on this earth while we are here.
PART OF THE VISION OF THIS DEVOTION IS TO HELP US LIVE THAT LIFE.
We draw virtues from Bible men and women who did live the life and learn from the Holy Spirit how to live ours. Today we are drawing virtues from the life of the man Daniel. We will be looking specifically at his prayer in our devotional text.
One thing that strikes me from this text is how Daniel prayed. The text tells us what he said to God during His intercession for the restoration of Jerusalem after the completion of the 70 years of desolations that God had decreed through Jeremiah the prophet.
From the content of what he prayed, we can see that sometimes God answer prayer not because of our righteousness, but because of His great mercies. He requested that God should answer his prayer because of God’s great mercies not because of his righteous deeds, even if he was full of them much more than us today!! What a request!
Most times we think that it’s because of our tithes and offerings that God answer our prayers. We are even taught to display tithe cards or records to him in prayer and tell, command Him to do whatever we want. That is why we do not see the moves of God that our Bible fathers saw in their days.
The Bible says such righteousness is like a filthy rag before God. Displaying whatever you may have done for God to be the reason for answer to prayers can work in some cases but not in others. What is more important is who we are in Christ.
If our prayer tone sound like the tone of Daniel’s; if we learn to say to the LORD, “Do not answer me for my righteousness for I have none. Answer me for your mercies sake; for your are full of mercy” we will have different results.
WE MUST COME TO THE SAME REVELATION OF GOD DANIEL HAD TO ENJOY THE GRACE OF DIVINE ATTENTION HE ENJOYED IN HIS DAYS!!
That is one way to live as pilgrims on earth. Yes, we must understand that God answer prayers because of His great mercies not just because of our deeds. The Bible says the righteous cries out and the LORD hears them, our moral nature plays a role in getting answers in prayers, but our religious deeds does not sometimes.
Sometimes as children of God we do not really know what we need. We always know what we want but do not always know what we need.
Wants are different from needs and are not satisfied but they have a way of making us very desperate. But sooner or later we wake up to find out that it is not what we wanted that we really needed. The Bible teaches that one major thing we need that many of us do not know is God’s “Great Mercies.”
Now I did not say “God’s Mercy” I said, “God’s Great Mercies.” To understand the difference between the two, it’s important that we look at this scripture in the book of Isaiah. The Bible says,
“For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,” Says the Lord, your Redeemer.
“For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. Isaiah 54:7-9 NKJV
This word was initially spoken to the natural Israelites but being spiritual Israelites the word is now spoken to us.
If you look at carefully you will realize that God did not deploy His mercies to restore Israel back to their land following the level of wickedness that sent them away, neither did He deploy His Mercies to salvage souls in the generation of Noah. God deployed His GREAT MERCIES.
Let me explain what I mean. Let’s leave the nation of Israel aside because their story is well known by many. Let’s look at the generation of Noah whose hidden story is still unknown to many.
HOW DID GOD DEPLOY HIS GREAT MERCIES ON THE GENERATION OF NOAH?
First, He deployed them to help the evil generation enter the ark. Second, He deployed it 4000 years after the flood, and this is how it all happened.
God had said to Noah;
“The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and outside with pitch.”
The Bible further made it clear that while Noah was building the ark, he was preaching to them by his actions. The purpose of that was to give them an opportunity to turn to the LORD! He preached for 120 years but none repented. That was Great Mercies!
Then the flood came and wiped them all away. However, the great mercies flowed even beyond the realm of human existence. They went beyond the graves of that generation.
The Bible teaches that they manifested in the descending of Jesus into the land of the dead to preach to the spirits: the spirits of the men of that generation. That was over 400 years later. That was great mercies. Friend, you may not have seen that in scriptures, but Peter exposed it to us!
Great mercies are mercies that makes God to suspend his own laws.
The Bible says there is no repentance in the grave (or land of the dead) but, except there is something we do not know, this miracle looks like God’s Great Mercies reached out to the people in the land of the dead, to bring them to repentance through the preaching of the gospel by Christ Himself, so that they could take part in the first resurrection.
If there is anything we need today is God’s great mercies. Seek them in prayers, ask the LORD to deploy them in your life, especially when you are facing very tough challenges of life. If they could work in the land of the dead for the spirits of the generation of Noah, they can work tremendously in our lives today.
SO, LEARN TO SEEK THE LORD TO GATHER YOU WITH HIS GREAT MERCIES ESPECIALLY IN THE DAYS OF ADVERSITY.
Yes, whenever the future seems bleak, whenever all hell is on your case, or premature death is closer than life, seek the LORD to show you His great mercies, ask Him to deploy them to help you. He will!!!
One of the major things God will never deny any man on this side of eternity is His mercies. If you ask Him for His mercies, He will not say no. That was what all who got miracles while Jesus Christ was physically here knew. They just appealed for God’s mercies and miracles were released.
I don’t think any of our lives will remain the same if we bend the prayer knee and persistently seek God for His great mercies, especially in days like the ones we live in. That is one thing we can see in the life of David.
As a warrior in God’s army, he so many times found himself in life conditions that, if God did not deploy His great mercies for the rescue, he would be no more. He prayed, and God did and today he still lives in the pages of the scriptures. One day, he said to the LORD:
“Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and your loving kindnesses, for they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.” Psalms 25:6-7 NKJV
Child of God, the life of David and that of all who were beneficiaries of God’s great mercies are examples to us all. Part of the lessons they teach is this: a man who is under God’s mercy will be thrown out swiftly if he did not use them well. But if he uses them well, he will come to the place of God’s great mercies.
It is our proper use of God’s mercies that brings us to the place of His great Mercies. This is one major reason we spent time in previous daily devotionals showing us how to make proper use of God’s mercies.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in you; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me. Indeed, let no one who waits on you be ashamed; let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.
Show me your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.
Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and your loving kindnesses, for they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to your mercy remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O Lord.” Psalms 25:1-7 NKJV
