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
He Restores My Soul
When Everything Falls Apart: How David Found Peace in Psalm 23
What do you do when life punches you in the gut and won’t let up? When your heart is broken, your name is dragged through the mud, and it feels like God is far away.
In today’s episode, we examine Psalm 23 not as a sweet verse for wall art but as David’s lifeline during one of the most humiliating and heartbreaking seasons of his life. His own son Absalom had betrayed him. Trusted friends turned on him. Public shame followed him like a shadow. And in the middle of all that? David doesn’t grovel. He doesn’t try to bargain with God or rehearse his pain.
He just says this: “The Lord is my shepherd.”
That’s it. And it changes everything.
We’ll walk through how David used meditation—not to fix his problems, but to shift his focus from fear to faith. Instead of obsessing over what was falling apart, he set his mind on the Shepherd who never left his side.
This episode will help you do the same. You’ll learn how to:
- Let go of the need to perform, explain, or prove yourself in the middle of chaos
- Shift from begging for peace to resting in the presence of the One who brings it
- See your troubles through the lens of a Shepherd who deeply cares for you
- Trade your anxious thoughts for quiet confidence in His love
No religious games. No pressure to be strong. Just a real invitation to find rest for your soul when life is anything but peaceful.
If your world feels like it’s crumbling, this is your reminder: You don’t have to have it all together. You just need to know who holds you together.
Come sit with the Shepherd. He’s already walking with you through the valley.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
we're talking about how to meditate, and we're discussing how to meditate when you're in deep trouble, because the first thing that you're going to think is I can't wrap my mind around God and the Bible. I can only pray and go to God, like that. But I want to show you what we learned from David in Psalm 23. How does he meditate when he's in danger, when he's been betrayed, when he's been falsely accused, attacked and hated? Because that's where we find David right now. He's falsely accused by Absalom, in front of all the people. He's been attacked by his son, by his best friend, he's been betrayed by both of them and they are trying to kill him. I mean, his life is in massive danger. How do you deal with that? How do you meditate in the worst situations you could possibly be in? Your own army is trying to kill you. How will you survive? And so I want to first talk with you about and I know this is repetition, but I think it bears repeating for us to get a hold of it and that is what David doesn't do.
Austin Gardner:Psalm 23 is the picture of how David meditated, and it's such a beautiful psalm because it tells us clear uh, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. It makes it very clear who the Lord is, makes it very clear what he's doing and it makes us very clear what, what he's focusing on. Psalm, chapter 23,. Psalm chapter, psalm 23,. David says the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want he maketh me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters, and I really want to get you to this part right here. He restores my soul. That's the part I'm really honing in on today, because you've got to admit that David has to be in pretty bad shape. He's been humiliated. His son is chasing him down. His enemies have defamed him. He's been publicly humiliated by what they've done. He has very few friends left. He's lost basically everything he knows. He's failed the Lord, he knows. He's got famous failures that everybody in the kingdom knows about.
Austin Gardner:It's been 15 years since Nathan called his hand over Bathsheba. At least. He finds himself at the very bottom of the pit, destroyed. How will he survive? Can he survive all of these attacks? Can David find hope?
Austin Gardner:So he begins to meditate and I want you to notice first, as we've done before, what he doesn't talk about. He doesn't grovel, he doesn't go to say God, I'm a worm and I beg you to love me. Now I feel like that on a lot of days. I wake up and I say God, why in the world have you left me alive? Who am I? What have I done? I failed you so many times. But that's not what David does. When you're in a pit, the last thing you need to be doing is talking about all the failures you've had.
Austin Gardner:He knows he's made a lot of mistakes. He knows God knows he's made a lot of mistakes. He doesn't beg for mercy. He doesn't tell God I failed. He doesn't try to justify himself before God. He doesn't say God, honestly, I tried to be a good dad. He doesn't do any of that. He just accepts where he's at and says the Lord is my shepherd. Now he's going to get his soul restored and you're going to see that in Psalm 23.
Austin Gardner:He doesn't beg for forgiveness. He doesn't reclaim his failures. He doesn't say I brought this on myself. He doesn't promise to do better. He doesn't agree to a bunch of conditions myself. He doesn't promise to do better. He doesn't agree to a bunch of conditions. He has just determined that he's going to get from God what God's love and care is. He's not blaming God that all of this has fallen apart. He's not upset with anybody. He doesn't question God's plan. He doesn't even mention his own need. That's so beautiful, because whenever I'm in trouble, the first thing I want to do is say God, look at me, what are you doing? I'm your son. How could this happen to me when I live in a sin-cursed world? The reason I have cancer is not because God did that to me. It's not even because God allowed that to happen to me. It's because I live in a sin-cursed world. God loves me and he's right here with me.
Austin Gardner:So what did David do? He begins by not meditating on himself. I want you to see that the entire focus is the Lord is my shepherd. That's the entire focus. He knows what shepherds are. He knows what shepherds do.
Austin Gardner:He knows the relationship of a shepherd to his sheep and he starts thinking about how the Lord is his shepherd and he starts thinking about all the shepherds done for him. He thinks about how God has taken care of him all of his life, even until now. He knows that God's taken care of him when he was doing wrong with Bathsheba. He knows that God has always been there. He's not focused on himself. He's focused on the Lord and he's focused on how God has always met his need. He knows that the look he said he's always met my needs. He's always given me more than enough so I could lay down satisfied. He's always taken me to peace in the middle of all my problems. Whenever I'm discouraged and whenever my life has fallen apart, he always restores me. And then he says he even leads me when I don't know what to do and I don't know where to go. He's always leading me. It doesn't matter that I may be in the shadow, the valley of the shadow of death. I know he's with me.
Austin Gardner:And this time he says I know you're with me. He says it to God. He didn't say God, come, be with me, please be with me, please be with me. He said I know you're with me. And he said I know you have all the ability to protect me. You have your rod and your staff and as he does that, I want you to see how his soul is being restored. He said boy, god, you're preparing a table before me in the presence of my enemies, in front of everybody who's trying to destroy me. Here you are still blessing me and people can see what you're doing. People are watching. You're pouring out your blessings on my head. You've anointed my head with oil. My cup runs over. To be honest with you, goodness and mercy have always chased me, do you understand? That's not what he's really experiencing in the moment, but he sees beyond that and he realizes it. He says God, I've always want to be with you. I always want to be there.
Austin Gardner:So I want you to know that whenever you're in trouble, this is what you're going to do. You're going to go to God and you're going to not focus on you. You're not going to focus on your problems. You're not going to do all that. You're going to focus on how good the Lord, your shepherd, is. Yes, you can cast all your cares on him. Yes, you can mention all your needs. You can say whatever you need to say to him, because he loves you. You can't offend him. He won't go running off because he loves you. He loves you.
Austin Gardner:So think about this all day long. Think about how God loves you and think about how you should meditate. Now I want to challenge you to stop looking at all the junk and start looking at what God's done Now, when you're laying in a bed at night and all the bills and all the problems start coming. You wonder how you're going to take care of the finances when you're worried about what your health is or what people are saying about you or how your social media rating is falling. I want you to focus on this. The God of heaven loves you. You are that special, that important to him. He cares about you. So you're learning to meditate, which will restore your soul. But your meditation isn't me focused. It isn't problem focused. It isn't man focused. It isn't man centered, it's God focused it is.
Austin Gardner:I know that God is going to do this. Now I just want you to notice in Psalm 23, when did he confess his sin? Confessing his sin, yes, we ought to confess our sin, but that just means we agree with God. That stuff hurt me. It was wrong. I don't want to be there. I want to serve you.
Austin Gardner:The point is it's a relationship, and God is not looking at you like some peon that works for him. He's not calling you a servant, but he's calling you a friend. He's calling you a servant, but he's calling you a friend. He's calling you a son, and that is love beyond anything you can ever imagine, and that's where you want to rest. You want to rest in this and you want to rest in that God loves you. You want to know that, no matter what's happening, don't blame God.
Austin Gardner:God is good, god is kind, god is love. And you're going to look at everything through that lens. And this is what's going to happen. It's going to restore your soul Because, when it's all said and done, if I die, I'll be with him. If I live, I will be with him, and he'll be with me Either way, both ways. If I'm in trouble, he's going to be here with me. He's going to show his grace. He's going to be good to me. He's going to show his grace, he's going to be good to me. So that's how your soul gets restored. That's how you get refreshed, that's how you get new life. That's how you breathe in wow, god is good to me.
Austin Gardner:Now, I know you have been taught all your life to say God, I'm a worm, I don't deserve it. I know you've been taught to scream at God and say God, please come, be with me, god, I'll change. And you make all kinds of deals with God. That's not what he's calling on you. That's not what David does in Psalm 23. David does not do that. David says the Lord is right now, without me doing anything else.
Austin Gardner:He starts off. He doesn't start off with a preamble that says I'm confessing my sin. He just starts off with what he knows to be fact the Lord is my shepherd. He has always taken care of me. He is always meeting my need. He has always given me more than I need. That's the God you serve and you want to focus on God. You want to focus on the Lord Jesus. So in the nighttime, when the night terrors come, when the fear comes, when things are raging at you, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His loving face and know that he has you, he's going to take care of you and your soul will be restored because you have looked to Him. That's what you're going to do today. You're going to have your soul.
