Goodness and Mercy Will Always Follow You
By Rick Warren
“The Lord watches over all who love him.” Psalm 145:20 (NIV)
When you put your trust in Jesus, you never need to fear the future. His goodness and mercy are with you every day.
You’re following the Good Shepherd, and he is out in front of you with his rod and staff. And at the back of the flock are a couple of sheepdogs—goodness and mercy—nipping at your heels, making sure you don’t run off into a ravine. These two sheepdogs keep you on track as you follow the Good Shepherd.
God’s goodness is watching over you. Did you know that a second has never passed in your life when God was not watching you? God is always paying attention to you, because he created you to love you. He knows every detail of your life.
Psalm 145:20 says, “The Lord watches over all who love him” (NIV).
Not only does he watch over you, but he also protects you. The Bible says, “God will command his angels to protect you wherever you go” (Psalm 91:11 CEV).
God’s protection doesn’t mean that only good things will happen to you. Suffering and disappointment will still come your way. But God will ensure that good will come out of everything that happens to you—whether or not you’re able to see in this lifetime how he has been working.
God’s mercy and grace is working in you. The Bible says in Isaiah 60:10, “I will have mercy on you through my grace” (TLB).
Grace is when God gives you what you don’t deserve. Mercy is when God doesn’t give you what you do deserve. For all the ways you’ve sinned, failed, and made mistakes, you deserve punishment, yet God pardons and forgives you through Christ. That’s mercy.
It is God’s nature to be merciful. He loves to show his mercy! He doesn’t get bored with it. He doesn’t get tired of it. He doesn’t get frustrated that you keep coming back for more. God doesn’t say, “Okay, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I’ll give goodness, and on Tuesday and Thursday, I’ll give mercy, and on Saturday and Sunday, you’re on your own.” That’s simply not true!
The truth is, God is with you every moment of every day, always offering his goodness and mercy.
Nobody knows what’s going to happen next week, much less next year or in the next 10 years. But when you face the future, you can know this: God will fill your life to overflowing, and his goodness and mercy will be with you. There is no need to fear.
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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