Do you know as believers in the body of Christ, we are supposed to always pray and not to faint! James 5:16b The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The secret of prayer is faith in a God who answers prayers but we are all born in sin yet it is the mercies of God that uphold us. It’s important to note all have fallen short of God’s glory but His mercies triumphs over judgment. I know there are many things that we go through in life and we sometimes may fail to understand but I am here to let you know the judgment of God sometimes is hidden but if we come to Him and plead for His mercies He hears and delivers us from all our troubles. Psalms 34:19- The righteous person may have many troubles but the Lord delivers him from them all.
Let’s take a look at Luke 18:9-14 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Two people went to pray in a temple, a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee was proud but the tax collector humbled himself before God and cried out for mercy. The tax collector was acceptable before God because he did not talk of His works like the pharisee yet he sought the mercies of God. One way to way to be acceptable before God is to ask for His mercies. Please hear me out my beloved, when it comes to the mercies of God, it doesn’t depend on our works. This is what is written in Romans 9:15- For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
One challenge we go through as believers, is going before God based on what we have done which should not be the case. Our attitude towards God is very important, if you want to be uplifted in your calling, don’t go before God with your works go before Him and desire His mercies. The standards of God are very High but it is His mercies that can bring deliverance and save us from destruction.
We have been delivered by the blood of Jesus but we should know the position of God. Sometimes God looks at the attitude of our heart’s and we appear to be taking Him for granted, we don’t offer Him the honor He deserves and that’s why seeking after His mercies is very important. Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
Philippians 2:6-8 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross! We should always desire that we should have the attitude of Jesus, our Lord and savior. It is His nature that should be formed in us and nothing else short from that. Hebrews 5:7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Jesus knew He was hundred percent God but there is a way He walked here on earth. He cried to God with groans for He knew only Him could save Him.
The way we approach God is very important and the spirit of a self-righteous attitude ought to be crushed from our hearts in the Name of Jesus.
The way we approach God is very important and the spirit of a self-righteous attitude ought to be crushed from our hearts in the Name of Jesus.
When God gives you mercy, He gives you grace that enables you to do His work. In this life, people look at our works but what they don’t know is that the work is by the grace of God which is a result of mercy. Some trust in chariots, some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord! He is the Almighty God, El Shaddai the all-sufficient one and our sufficiency is in Him. God can make you all He wants when He has mercy on you. David was forgotten even by his family but God had mercy on Him and made his name great. Eliab and the other brothers were better than him but God had mercy on David because of the nature of his heart. It doesn’t matter if your enemies are great or prominent, God will deliver you.
Psalm 57:1-2 Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you, I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me. Cry for God’s mercy and hide yourself under the shadow of His wings so that the purposes of God upon your life will not be thwarted.
Parting Shot are the Words of Ezekiel in Ezekiel 22:23-30, Again the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, say to the land, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed or rained on in the day of wrath.’ There is a conspiracy of her princes within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they devour people, take treasures and precious things and make many widows within her. Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean, and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths so that I am profaned among them. Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says’ when the Lord has not spoken. The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice. “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.
To all my fellow Kenyans, let us repent for the sins of our leaders, priests, prophets, and ordinary people. Cry out for mercy for our leaders who oppress the needy, priests who defile the altar of God, prophets who prophesy falsely to the people, and ordinary people who fail to stand in the gap. We may have failed God on different levels, in different categories but He is our Father, cry to Him for mercy. Repent of all the evils in our nation, the bloodshed and the oppression, Cry for mercy to prevail over judgment as we get close to the upcoming General Election on 9th 08 2022 that God will give us leaders according to His mercies and not His wrath.
Love Reina Beaty.
