God’s Mercy at Work

Hi there, and thank you so much for joining us for today's devotional reading from Our Daily Bread. Our reading is titled, God's Mercy at Work, and it was written by So Chi Dixon. My anger percolated when a woman mistreated me, blamed me, and gossiped about me. I wanted everyone to know what she'd done, wanted her to suffer as I'd suffered because of her behavior.

I steamed with resentment until a headache pierced my temples. But as I began praying for my pain to go away, the Holy Spirit convicted me. How could I plot revenge while begging God for relief?

If I believed He would care for me, why wouldn't I trust Him to handle this situation? Knowing that people who are hurting often hurt other people, I asked God to help me forgive the woman and work toward reconciliation. The psalmist David understood the difficulty of trusting God while enduring unfair treatment. Though David did his best to be a loving servant, King Saul succumbed to jealousy and wanted to murder him. David suffered while God worked things out and prepared him to take the threat on his own. But still, he chose to honor God instead of seeking revenge. He did his part to reconcile with Saul and left the results in God's hands.

When it seems others are getting away with wrongdoing, we struggle with the injustice. But with God's mercy at work in our hearts and the hearts of others, we can forgive, as He's forgiven us, and receive the blessings He's prepared for us. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from 1 Samuel chapter 24 verses 1-10. After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, David is in the desert of En-Gedi. So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the crags of the wild goats.

He came to the sheep pens along the way. A cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. The men said, This is the day the Lord spoke of when He said to you, I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish. Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe. Afterward, David was conscious-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe.

He said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, or lay my hand on him, for he is the anointed of the Lord. With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul, and Saul left the cave and went his way. Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, My Lord the King.

When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He said to Saul, Why do you listen when men say, David is bent on harming you? This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you.

I said, I will not lay my hand on my Lord because he is the Lord's anointed. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, please forgive us when we respond with retaliation to someone who has treated us poorly. Instead, help us to respond like Christ and forgive those who do or say hurtful things to us, as hard as that may be. God, just help us to live lives that display your love to the world. Thank you, Father. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.