Psalm 113:4 “You've rescued me from hell and saved my life. You've crowned me with love and mercy.” Today's episode talks about how God has rescued each of us at some point in our lives. It reminds us that God was with us the whole time, even if we couldn't feel Him. Then, it talks about how we are crowned with love and mercy and how hard this can be for us to believe. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
I Am Rescued (Identity Series)
Psalm 103:4 “You've rescued me from hell and saved my life. You've crowned me with love and mercy.”
I think most of us can say that God has rescued us from hell at one point or another. Of course, this hell looks different for each one of us. Your hell might look like years of depression that seem overwhelming. Your hell might be years of anxiety too much to deal with. Your hell might be an abusive relationship that you can’t seem to leave. Your hell might be money troubles that keep getting worse and worse. We all have something we are dealing with. Mine was family trouble for a very long time. It was really difficult to parent my children, and my marriage was not going well. This went on for a very long time. Maybe yours has gone on for a long time, too.
When our difficult times go on for a long time, it can be difficult to believe that God will rescue us from them. Understanding why God hasn’t rescued us from these difficult times can be challenging. However, He always does rescue us from them. Not only does he rescue us from them, but he walks with us while we are in them as well. God never leaves our side. He is right there with us each step of the way. In my Encounter Ministries class, they taught us an exercise to help heal wounded memories. The first step is to stop and ask Jesus, “Where were you when this occurred?” Did you know you could ask God questions like this? Did you know asking where He was when you were struggling was okay?
Did you know that if you ask and truly listen, He will tell you where He was? That may seem strange to you if you are not used to listening to or hearing the Lord’s voice. Well, actually, it’s not usually the Lord’s voice you hear. It is usually more like you hear your own voice in your head or you get a thought in your head with no voice. But you will get an answer if you listen for one. I remember volunteering to do this exercise in front of the class so the teacher could demonstrate how it works. When I asked Jesus where He was during a specific experience with my boys, He explained that He was right there, giving me the strength to keep getting up each morning. He gave me strength and perseverance, so I never felt like giving up. He was with me through it all.
He is doing the same with you. You might have had some truly terrible experiences. Know that Jesus was right by your side through them. I don’t know why He didn’t prevent them from happening. That is something for Him to answer. I know He was there with you; no matter how alone you felt, you were not alone. He was there, walking by your side. God is so good like that!
The next part of the verse says, “You've crowned me with love and mercy.” These two things can be challenging for us to understand. We might be unable to believe that the Lord loves us for many reasons. If no one on earth has truly loved us, then it can be hard to believe anyone could love us, let alone someone as magnificent as the Lord. If we have had a hard life and done many things we are not proud of, then we struggle to believe someone could love us. The Lord’s love is unconditional. It is not dependent on what you do or say. It is not dependent on whether you love him back. You do not need to earn God’s love. It is freely given. This can be hard to understand, especially if we had to earn love as a child. We live in a broken world, so we don’t all love unconditionally.
The second part of this line also says we are crowned with mercy. The definition of mercy is “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.” This is why we struggle to believe in God’s mercy. We know He has the power to punish us. We know we deserve that punishment, yet God wants to shower us with His mercy. That doesn’t make much sense to us because that is not how the world thinks. We live in a day and age where we seem to be back to an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It seems like if someone does something to you, you have to do something back to them.
For instance, when we are on the highway, and someone cuts you off, you have to blare your horn at them. You have to show them they did something wrong. My question is, “Why?” Why do you have to let them know they did something wrong? Can’t we have mercy on them and let them go on their way? I was driving with one of my sons the other day, and he wanted to get into a lane, but the driver wouldn’t let him in. He passed him on the right, and then my son got into that lane. However, my son was so angry that this man passed on the right and didn’t let him in. Where is the mercy? Where is the forgiveness?
People seem to get so angry at the slightest offense or at the slightest wrongdoing these days. This makes understanding how God can show us mercy when we have done some pretty big things more challenging. We are a flawed people, and we turn away from God often. So, how can he keep forgiving us when we don’t want to forgive those around us? These are all legitimate thoughts. However, we need to consider that we are not dealing with another human. We are dealing with the Lord God Almighty. He can do all things. There is nothing too great for Him. We are His children, and He crowns us with love and mercy, not one or the other, both. He is a good and loving Father!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us to believe that you crown us with love and mercy. Help us to feel that down in our hearts! Thank you, Lord, for rescuing us from Hell. Thank you for all you did to get us out of that place and all you did to try to keep us out of it in the first place. We are sorry we don’t listen better. Help us learn to follow you more. Help us to hear your voice above all others. Help us to follow your path and no one else’s. We love you, Lord, you are amazing! Thank you for all you do for us. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I haven’t mentioned it in a while, so I want to remind everyone that if you want to receive my newsletter and any information on my coaching program or upcoming retreats, you can sign up on my webpage, walkboldlywithjesus.com. Or you can CLICK HERE and you will be signed up for the newsletter and receive a free audio training on how to invite Jesus into your every day.
I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day.
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in August 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “We live in fear. We allow fear to creep in. I hear the Lord saying, every time a negative thought, a fear creeps in, send it to the feet of Jesus. Do not allow it to consume you for one second and when you've done that, call the Holy Spirit into your life to show you how to combat the enemy faster.”