In Part 1, we discussed how the devil can hack into your spiritual bank account in the areas of forgiveness of iniquities, healing of diseases and redemption from a life of destruction. We are going to continue on in our study from Psalm 103:2-5, starting with verse 4b, “Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies.”
How can the enemy steal your crown of lovingkindness and tender mercies? I think we can look at this in a couple of different ways. Lovingkindness and tender mercies are terms of endearment. And lovingkindness means “tenderness and consideration toward others”. We would all agree that the enemy does not want us to believe that God holds us dear to His heart. In fact, the enemy works hard to get us to believe that God is harsh, unloving and uncaring toward us. He portrays God as being monstrous towards people, always placing the blame for tragedy upon Him. But what does the Bible say about God’s character? Let’s look at seven verses concerning who He is:
- “God is faithful” (1 Cor. 10:13b).
- “God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy” (Ps. 1-3:8).
- He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish (see 2 Pet. 3:9).
- “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16a).
- “God is not a man, that He should lie” (Num. 23:19a).
- He is a God of justice (see Ps. 50:6).
- God is gracious, righteous and full of compassion (see Ps. 116:5).
In these seven verses alone, we see that God is faithful, merciful, gracious, slow to get angry, abounds in mercy, is patient and loving to all people, a giver and gives to us His best; He does not lie, He’s just, righteousness and full of compassion. Don’t listen to anyone, especially the devil, try to tell you anything different about Him.
God’s not angry with you. He doesn’t think evil about you. He really cares about you. The Word clearly tells us in Psalm 139:17-18,”How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You.” Jeremiah 29:11 tells us how He thinks about us, “For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” These Scriptures do not sound as if our God lacks in the area of lovingkindness towards us, in fact they declare the opposite.
What about tender mercies? Exodus 34:6-7 tell us that the Lord is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth. And it goes on to tell us that He is keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. These are all amazing qualities and He is clearly full of great love and compassion for us.
So the next time Satan tries to steal lovingkindness and tender mercy from your crown—don’t let him. Rebuke him, and put him in his place—under your feet in the name of Jesus, and relish in the fact that He thinks good of you and that His good thoughts about you outnumber the sand. That’s an amazing fact to meditate upon today.
We will continue with His benefits in the next post. {eoa}
Becky Dvorak is a prophetic healing evangelist and the author of DARE to Believe, Greater Than Magic and The Healing Creed. Visit her at authorbeckydvorak.com.
This article originally appeared at authorbeckydvorak.com.
