HE OPENS OUR EYES
The Holy Spirit seeks to bring to us a growing knowledge that God is going to be merciful to us all the way through our trials. “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not” (2 Corinthians 4:1).
What is the merciful ministry we have received from the Holy Spirit? He opens our eyes to the tender mercies of Christ toward us. He implants in us an inner knowing that the Lord is on our side, that He is for us. And He shows us how committed God is to keep us from falling—how compassionate He is toward everything we’re going through, how touched He is by the feelings of our infirmities.
Right now you may feel abused and unloved. The devil would have you believe that God has left you to your own devices—that you deserve to suffer, that it’s all over for you, that there is no hope. Beloved, those are lies from hell. God wants more than anything else to rid you of your perverted concept of Him. He loves you tenderly and He has already set a time to bestow all His mercies on you.
David cried pitifully as he was overwhelmed by his situation: “My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. . . . I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. Mine enemies reproach me all the day . . . I have . . . mingled my drink with weeping. . . . My days are like a shadow that declineth" (Psalm 102:4, 7-9, 11). He groaned, “I’m in a terrible condition, physically, mentally and spiritually.”
Yet that was the very time God had set to deliver David, and the Lord moved in quickly with mercy, help and comfort. David testified, “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come” (Psalm 102:13).
God’s set time to deliver David was in his lowest hour, when he was thinking, “I’ve been reduced to nothing.” Likewise today, God has set a time to deliver and send His favor upon us—and it usually comes in our worst hour of trial. That’s the time when we’re no longer struggling to do things on our own. Instead, we admit, “Lord, I can’t do it—it’s a mess. I give it all over to you.”
What is the merciful ministry we have received from the Holy Spirit? He opens our eyes to the tender mercies of Christ toward us. He implants in us an inner knowing that the Lord is on our side, that He is for us. And He shows us how committed God is to keep us from falling—how compassionate He is toward everything we’re going through, how touched He is by the feelings of our infirmities.
Right now you may feel abused and unloved. The devil would have you believe that God has left you to your own devices—that you deserve to suffer, that it’s all over for you, that there is no hope. Beloved, those are lies from hell. God wants more than anything else to rid you of your perverted concept of Him. He loves you tenderly and He has already set a time to bestow all His mercies on you.
David cried pitifully as he was overwhelmed by his situation: “My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. . . . I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. Mine enemies reproach me all the day . . . I have . . . mingled my drink with weeping. . . . My days are like a shadow that declineth" (Psalm 102:4, 7-9, 11). He groaned, “I’m in a terrible condition, physically, mentally and spiritually.”
Yet that was the very time God had set to deliver David, and the Lord moved in quickly with mercy, help and comfort. David testified, “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come” (Psalm 102:13).
God’s set time to deliver David was in his lowest hour, when he was thinking, “I’ve been reduced to nothing.” Likewise today, God has set a time to deliver and send His favor upon us—and it usually comes in our worst hour of trial. That’s the time when we’re no longer struggling to do things on our own. Instead, we admit, “Lord, I can’t do it—it’s a mess. I give it all over to you.”