Military Devotion – The Merciful, Loving, Compassionate God Forgives – August 29, 2025

Watch the Devotion

Based on Psalm 51

He was three years into his deployment when he reached out to me. He confessed, “Chaplain Horn, I’m really struggled with pornography. And it’s not just me; it’s my wife too. We’ve never been apart this long. And my battle buddies are struggling with it too, and not just the guys. It’s the gals too!” I asked a Sailor here in San Diego about this, and he said, “Oh, yeah . . . pornography runs rampant in our squadron.”

That first individual and his battle buddies recognized this: “This is not healthy for me, for us, for our spouses.” Why did they come to that realization?

They understood that God created us. God gave us the gift of life, our bodies, and our minds. A holy God wants us to have pure thoughts and pure desires. They also understood that God created us to be sexual creatures, and that’s a good thing. He also gave us the gift of sex within marriage.

They understood that pornography corrupts all of it.

Porn creates in us unhealthy desires. It causes us to have unrealistic expectations about our bodies and about sex and about others. Pornography tells the lie that you can do what you want with your body and with someone else’s body.

When someone falls into its web and is caught in it and struggles to cut free of it, the devil uses porn to convince you that what you have done—that you have sought your own pleasure—and the pure things you have left undone—that these sins are so great and the guilt is so obnoxious to God that there is no possible way God could forgive you. How could God look at you any differently than as a disgusting sinner?

But he doesn’t. God doesn’t view you that way. The proof?

I invite you to look at the words of a man who himself was a war fighter, a leader, the top general, the commander in chief. One evening he allowed his eyes to wander, and his mind and heart followed, and he desired what he could not have. He took God’s gift of his body and gift of marriage and sexuality and chose to do what pleased him.

When a friend confronted him about his sin, he repented. He acknowledged his sin. His friend said to him, “You are forgiven. Your sin is atoned for.” Then this man—known as King David—wrote a beautiful song about it. It’s called Psalm 51. He used beautiful words to describe what kind of God he has, the kind of God you have: a merciful God, a God of unfailing love, the just but compassionate judge. If this is the kind of God you have, how will he act toward you and your sin and your guilt, as great as you believe it to be?

My challenge to you is to grab a journal or notebook and read Psalm 51. Write down all the different words and phrases and pictures David uses to describe how God forgives all of it. And as you read it, remind yourself, He means me. The God of unfailing love forgives me. He sees me forgiven. How can he do that?

Because Jesus is the pure one. Jesus is the one with holy thoughts and desires. Jesus is the one whose blameless life God sees, and when he looks at you, he sees Jesus.

Read Psalm 51 and confess with David. Read Psalm 51 and see Jesus like David did. Read Psalm 51 and find your comfort and hope and strength to live and to use your body and mind, to use the gifts of marriage and sexuality, to God’s glory. Read Psalm 51 and believe, These are God’s words to me. These are God’s words for me.

Prayer:

Lord, we confess our sins to you and plead for your mercy. We acknowledge that sin runs too deep in our nature for us ever to rid ourselves of it, but we thank you that Jesus has done what we could not do—washing us clean of every stain. We plead that your Spirit would give us the strength to live a new life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Written and recorded by Rev. Paul Horn, WELS National Civilian Chaplain to the Military, San Diego, California.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. Note: Scripture reading footnotes are clickable only in the web version.