Life’s Mistakes Help Us To Understand God’s Mercy

“I said, ‘O Lord, have mercy on me, heal me, for I have sinned against you.’ ” (Psalms 41:4)

I invite you to visit my website at www.devotions.com the next time you’re surfing the Internet. It’s one of the most popular Internet sites for Christian devotions and features just about every column I’ve ever written, almost 400 of them. A couple of years ago, my wife’s former pastor from her hometown suggested we offer an email devotion from out website. Today, we have over 570 subscribers. If you visit my website, you, too, can begin receiving a weekly devotion by email. Just follow the instructions.

One of the points I stress to my Internet readers is that no problem is too difficult for the Christian who is willing to reach out in faith and trust Christ. As you already know, I often use personal experiences of my own, or others that have been shared with me to examine biblical truths. The stories may change but the bottom line is always the same: When we stand on God’s promises and apply biblical principles to the problems that everyday living brings, nothing can defeat us.

Several years ago, for example, I learned an unforgettable biblical truth about mercy. It came from an elderly man who thought he was just offering a word of encouragement. Little did he know that God was also using him to help me understand that mercy is all about getting something we don’t deserve.

As we chatted, he confessed that he had been a recovering alcoholic for almost 50 years. I was shocked. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that he would remotely understand the destruction that alcoholism brings with it. Yet, I saw in his eyes that strange combination of pain and joy that so often frequents the lives of born-again Christians who have been delivered from addictions.

He recounted his story as if it were yesterday. But it was 1950 when he put his daughter in the tub for her evening bath. She loved playing in the tub, so it came as no surprise to him for her to ask for a few more minutes of playtime when he went into the bathroom to let her know that it was time to get out and get ready for bed. He agreed, poured himself another drink, lost track of time, and dosed off.

When he awoke, he remembered that she was still in the bathtub, but he no longer heard her playing. He rushed to the bathroom. There she lay on her back in the tub, lifeless and under water, except for a small area around her mouth.

“O Lord,” he exclaimed, “please let her be living.” Well God obliged and managed to get his attention, too. “After that night,” he told me, “I promised myself that I would never drink again and I’ve kept that promise for 46 years.”

I was moved by his story and when he walked away, I asked God: “What are you trying to tell me here, Lord?” I finally realized during one of my daily walks what I think God was telling me from that near tragic moment and that is things don’t always go wrong because my friend’s life was saved and not ruined from that experience. God used that act of mercy to convince him to quit drinking and change the direction that his life was taking him. That one act of mercy brought him to an understanding of what “joy unspeakable” means.

The Bible is full of stories about just how much God’s mercy can change us. In fact, the Apostle Paul is perhaps the best example. He was by anyone’s standard an arrogant and hateful man before he came to know Jesus, but he changed when he met his Savior on the road to Damascus. If God can change Paul, there’s hope for anyone.

As I was reading from one of Paul’s letters to Timothy, I began to even better understand the meaning of my friend’s story. “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief,” Paul told Timothy. (1 Timothy 1:13) I realized that my friend, like Paul, was also ignorant and an unbeliever, but he, too, had been forgiven for the ignorance and poor judgment that he used.

We don’t get what we really deserve. Paul knew it. My friend knows it, and I know it, too. In fact, there isn’t a Christian who hasn’t walked away from the cross who doesn’t have a life-changing story about the mercy of God.

The prophet Daniel was right: “The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him.” (Daniel 9:9)