Followed By Mercy
The Followed By Mercy Podcast
Real Grace, Honest Hope
You might notice a new name and a fresh look, but the heart behind this podcast is the same. After years as the World Evangelism Podcast, I sensed God leading me to a deeper, more personal path centered on His relentless mercy and the kind of honest hope that can reach into every hurting place. That’s why this show is now called Followed By Mercy Podcast. The format may shift, and the tone may be a bit more personal, but my mission hasn’t changed: I still believe the world desperately needs to hear the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. You are welcome here if you’ve been with me from the beginning or just found us now.
What if God’s love is more personal, stubborn, and relentless than you ever imagined?
Welcome to The Followed By Mercy Podcast, where we get honest about pain, hope, and the kind of grace that finds you right where you are, five days a week. This isn’t about religious performance or church routines. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt worn out, unseen, or unsure if they belong in the story of God’s love. Every conversation is rooted in this reality: God loves you right now, just as you are, and He isn’t giving up on you.
Here’s what you’ll find in every episode:
Experience God’s Relentless Love
Every show starts by reminding you that the Shepherd knows your name, cares about your story, and isn’t offended by your failures or questions. This is personal—it’s about God’s unwavering affection for you.
Find Your Place in His Heart
Once you grasp how fiercely you’re loved, sharing that love with others doesn’t feel forced. It becomes the most natural thing in the world. Real grace overflows.
Prayer That Changes You
We pray together—not just for the world “out there,” but for the battles and hopes you’re carrying right now. These prayers are honest, rooted in Scripture, and meant for hearts that need a gentle touch from the Shepherd.
Discover Your Unique Role
Whether you’re called to go, give, serve, or show kindness in your corner of the world, God’s mercy meets you where you are. You’re not just a bystander. You are His beloved, invited into the story He’s writing.
When life knocks the wind out of you, this is a place to catch your breath. You’ll hear the encouragement that meets you on your hardest days, and your honest questions will be welcomed. No pretending, no heavy-handed advice—just the reminder that your Shepherd is right there with you, walking every step with you, even when you feel like giving up.
Why does this matter? Because some days, it feels like nobody sees you or cares what you’re going through. But the truth is, you have a Shepherd who never takes His eyes off you, lets you slip through the cracks, and never gives up on you. That kind of love can put you back on your feet, and it might be the hope someone else is waiting to see in you, too.
If you’re longing for more than just religious talk—if you want to know you’re not alone and that God’s mercy is following you all the way home, you’re in the right place. Whether you listen in the car, on a walk, or in a quiet moment, let every episode remind you: God’s mercy is after you right now, ready to bring real grace and honest hope.
Subscribe today and join a community to discover what happens when loved people become loving people. The journey’s just beginning, and there’s a place for you here.
Followed By Mercy
Who is the LORD Indulgent
What if the God you were taught to fear is far more patient than you ever imagined? A lot of us carry around this idea of God as someone with a short fuse—quick to judge, faster to punish. But when you look closely at scripture, that picture falls apart.
God didn’t lead with power or wrath when he introduced himself to Moses. He said he’s “long-suffering.” In Hebrew, that phrase points to a “long nose”—a strange image unless you know what it means. When we’re angry, we breathe fast through our noses. But someone slow to anger takes deep, steady breaths. That’s the kind of patience God claims for himself.
Psalm 103:8 says it plainly: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.” The patience is wrapped in mercy, start to finish.
That context changes how we read “The Lord is my shepherd” in Psalm 23. He’s not hovering with a rod, waiting for us to slip up. He’s not that kind of Shepherd. He’s more like a grandfather who lets the kids sneak another handful of candy just because he enjoys their company. He’s not keeping a scorecard of your mess-ups—he’s ready to forgive before you even ask.
The truth is that we tend to project our own baggage onto God. We think he’s like the impatient boss, the harsh parent, the exasperated teacher. But he’s not. He’s the father in the story of the prodigal son, watching the road, hoping to see you coming home, not so he can say, “I told you so,” but so he can throw his arms around you.
God has let you make your choices—even the ones that hurt you. He didn’t stop loving you. He’s never stopped waiting.
So today, ask yourself honestly: What if your Shepherd really is that patient? What would change if you stopped fearing his disappointment and started trusting his mercy?
God isn’t who many of us were told he is. He’s far more kind, more patient, and more ready to welcome you than you think.
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I very much enjoyed sharing with you about the Lord. As you recall, I asked you to consider that he gets to tell us who he is, and he said I am the Lord. He said the Lord, the Lord, god, merciful, gracious. And guess what? The next word is Long-suffering. He is long-suffering, so I am, is my shepherd, merciful is my shepherd. Merciful, merciful is my shepherd, gracious is my shepherd. And now, long-suffering is my shepherd. That means he is slow to anger, that means he is patient. Doesn't that kind of go against a lot of what you've thought about God? If you're honest, you don't think of him as being all that patient. But here's what the Bible says about him in Psalm 103, 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. I find that hilarious. You see, that's not the God you and I picture. That's not the God that religion would paint for us. One thing that surprises me about Psalm 103.8 is it says the Lord is merciful at the beginning of the verse, and at the end of the verse it says and plenteous in mercy. Did you get that? He's full of mercy at the beginning and plenty of mercy at the end, and he's slow to anger. He is slow to anger. Now, what's really funny is that that uh word in the Hebrew refers to having long feathers on a bird so that when it can cover its children, it can cover the birdlings, it can cover the little birds. It's far reaching and that's how the mercy of the Lord is. Another interesting thing about that word is it talks about being long nosed. Interesting thing about that word is it talks about being long-nosed. The Hebrew idiom had in mind a long nose, and that doesn't make a lot of sense to us. Until you think about what happens when you get mad. You breathe quickly and you start breathing and your nose is fast and it's not long, it's short. And God says I don't get excited, I don't breathe hard and fast, I don't lose my cool, I am long suffering, I am patient, I am very slow to anger. That's what the Bible says about the God that you serve. He is a long nose, he is slow to get angry. Now, I love this.
Austin Gardner:In Nehemiah, chapter 9 and verse 17,. The Bible says and these people, the people of God, refused to obey, they were not mindful of the wonders, they didn't consider all that God had done. Sounds a lot like us, doesn't it? They hardened their necks, they got stiff-necked, they got stubborn, they got against God, and that's their attitude. And they rebelled and they appointed a captain that would go back and return them to their bondage that he had just freed them from.
Austin Gardner:But look what he said you are a god ready to pardon, ready to pardon. He is very ready to forgive you, very ready to make change things, to give you new life. He is ready to pardon. He is gracious. Does it remember what it says in the bible when he said I won't tell you my name? And he said I'm gracious. And he said I'm merciful. And then he said I'm slow to anger. He said and I'm of great kindness. And he said and I won't turn on you. That's who God is. That's who God is.
Austin Gardner:You know what it means when you talk about God being patient, when you talk about God being long-suffering, it is God being enduring. It is him enduring patiently, whatever. That's what happened on the cross of Calvary, when the God of heaven in human flesh was on the cross, paying the price for your salvation and my salvation, taking our sins on him, because God the Father loved you. God the Father was in the Son and with the Son and working through the Son, and he endured everything patiently on the cross. He endured everything patiently on the cross, the cross. He endured everything patiently on the cross.
Austin Gardner:The idea here is that God is indulgent. Are you ready for that? God is indulgent. That means he is lenient, he is overly generous. It means that he tends to allow someone to have or do whatever they want. In other words, god acts like the grandfather acts about the children. You know, the parents are going to be a lot quicker to discipline, and they should, they should be. But God says, hey, I'm indulgent, I'm long-suffering, I put up with a lot of junk. I put up with a lot of junk, I put up with a lot of junk. He's allowing someone to enjoy something, even if it's not proper or healthy or appropriate, like when my grandchildren would come into my office and grab a bowl of M&M's and just sit down on the couch and talk to me and sit there just eating M&M after M&M. You see, god takes the patient view. God ignores our weaknesses. He doesn't look for fault in us. He's just too sweet, like a grandparent to their children. When the children of Israel said we're tired of eating angel food. We're tired of eating angel food. We're tired of eating manna. God gave them meat because that's what they asked for, because God is patient.
Austin Gardner:Now I say all this because I want you to know when you get to Psalm 23 and he says the Lord is my shepherd. If you don't know who the Lord is, then you don't understand my shepherd. If you don't know who the Lord is, then you don't understand. See, if you got the Lord down as being judgmental and disciplined in you, then you're going to get to the rod and the staff and you're going to believe God's there to hit you with it. That's not what's happening. The Lord needs you to know who he is.
Austin Gardner:The whole psalm hinges on these two words the Lord Yahweh, I am, I am is merciful. He is full of mercy. I am is gracious Another word for mercy I am is indulgent. I am is slow to anger. I am is patient. I am is long-suffering. You've got to get that straight in your head. You've got to get that straight in your head. You've got to get that straight in your heart. You've got to understand just how much God loves you. Because you see, when David looks up and sees the Lord, he sees mercy. When David looks up and sees the Lord, he doesn't see judgment. When David looks up and sees the Lord, he sees graciousness. He's not expecting harsh treatment. When David looks up and sees long suffering and patient, he's thinking that's the Lord I serve and that's the Lord you serve.
Austin Gardner:And so I know you're going through stuff, things are happening in your life, but I'm afraid you might have a wrong view of God. You might have a wrong view of God. You might not know him as he is and you might not see him as he is. And I want to challenge you to get a hold of who he is. The Lord, the Lord full of mercy, the Lord very kind and generous and gracious, the Lord long-suffering, the Lord who doesn't get excited and agitated easily. He's indulgent. And if you get that straight, then the Lord is my shepherd, gracious is my shepherd, patient is my shepherd.
Austin Gardner:We often have had parents that were short-tempered and easily angered with us. Not our God, not our shepherd. So continue with me in Psalm chapter 23. But today you meditate on this. The shepherd, the God of heaven, the Savior, is patient with you. He's allowed you to do a lot of junk you shouldn't have done. He's allowed you to go to a lot of places you shouldn't have gone. You thought he was mad at you and cut you off, but he just sat there patiently saying I love you, buddy, and I want you to come home, just like the father of the prodigal son. And it's sweet because we serve that God. He's been so patient with me, so patient with my being judgmental, so patient with my being legalistic, so patient with me not understanding even who he was and that's who he is with you today. God bless you and I hope you enjoy today as you think about how slow to anger, how patient, how indulgent our shepherd is.