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
Does God Cause Suffering? (Plus a Special Series Announcement)
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"I want to challenge you to think about how much God loves you today."
Before we begin our 5-day series on Monday, Austin Gardner shares a heart-to-heart message on the theology of suffering and the power of God's unconditional love. If you’ve ever felt broken by your circumstances or wondered if God has "accidents," this episode is for you.
Highlights:
- The Series Reveal: Everything you need to know about the Robert and Kelly Canfield story launching Monday, March 9.
- Affection vs. Attachment: Learning from King David (1 Chronicles 29) on where to place our heart's treasure.
- The Sinful World Reality: Addressing the misconception that God is the author of our pain.
- Resting in Grace: Why your relationship with Jesus isn't about "trying harder."
Join us Monday through Friday next week for the full "Followed by Mercy" series.
Connect with Austin:
Visit the website for over 100 articles and resources: https://waustingardner.com
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Preview Of Canfield Story Series
Austin GardnerWell, I'm excited today because I get to tell you about what's coming Monday through Friday of this coming week. And so you've been faithful to listen and watch, and I have no words to express my gratitude, but I really want to give you a treat because you'll be getting to hear from Robert and Kelly Canfield about how God has followed them with mercy all the days of their life in spite of dealing with a life-threatening, horrible disease called Pompeii disease. And I know you don't fully understand what that is, but you will, and you will also see the grace of God at work in their lives and how God has worked and moved in their lives in spite of all of that. Sometimes it's easy to look at other people and not realize they're going through things right now and they're hurting. And that's Robert and Kelly's story. But in the middle of all that grace are the sweetest, most wonderful, God-fearing, God-believing, God-loving, God-loved people that you'll ever meet in your life. So I cannot wait. So if you're listening on the podcast or if you're watching on YouTube or you're catching this anywhere else, please invite everybody you know to be with us on Monday, and that'll be the 9th. And we'll go from Monday to Friday with five stories. It was done by Gary Morrison, who's a very good friend of ours, who attends uh our church, the Iglesia Bautista Libertad. He is an excellent, excellent uh videographer. He's nothing like me. You're going to enjoy it. It's professionally, professionally done and edited. And I could never thank Gary Morrison enough for all that he's done. Well, today I'd just like to direct your uh um heart and attitude to something I've been reading and studying in uh my own personal Bible reading. In 1 Chronicles chapter 29, verse 3, the Bible says, Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of mine own good, proper good of gold and silver which I've given to the house of God over and above all that I prepared for the Holy House. And that's David talking about how he set his heart on God. And what a wonderful thing. He was so in love with God that he set his affection. It affected him and about the amount of money he would give and all the things he would do. I'll be back to you with my story of growing up and dealing with COVID and cancer, but I'm just kind of dealing with some of these other things in the interim. But I thought today, as I was going over my own life, set your affection on things above, not on things on this earth. That's what the apostle Paul told us to do in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 2. It is focus. It's a command. It's a it's to say, hey, put your life on that. And the truth is, when you put your heart and mind on the Lord, all of a sudden you can enjoy contentment. You can realize, boy, God is not doing accidents. Now, I did hear somebody say this week, boy, God uh you know, God has other plans, and that's why he caused them to suffer. I wanted to interrupt, but I didn't. I wanted to interrupt and say, no, no, no, no, no. I don't really believe that you could say biblically that God caused suffering. I think you'd have to admit, if you were biblically true and honest with this, you'd have to look at it and realize that we live in a sinful world. We walked away from God, we did our own thing. And when sin and wickedness and this evil world desired to harm us, we see God step in and take what was meant for evil and turn it into something good. So we move away from this haphazard Christianity. We move away from this emotional driven thing because all of a sudden we start focusing on the Lord and focusing on his mercy and his grace, and we start seeing what he's doing in and around our lives. And so I just want to challenge you to think about that and to think about how much God loves you today, and to think about if you set your affection on him. You know, if you if you're too tied up with everything that's going on around you, yep. If you lose some money, it'll tear you up. And if you lose some health, it'll tear you up. But if you're in love with Jesus and you're thinking about how much he loves you, and that's the biggest lesson of all. That's the hardest lesson for me to learn. I felt pretty good when it was all about me loving him because I was like, I gotta try, I gotta try, I gotta try. But the truth is, all I gotta do is sit and soak in the love that God, Almighty God, has for me, and he has for you. Uh, this coming Sunday, I am actually preaching a message on the love of Jesus Christ. The love of Christ which is beyond anything we can measure. It surrounds us. He loved us while we were still sinners. He loved us while we were weak and ungodly, while we couldn't do anything. He loved us in and he loves us now. He's already made us completely accepted. So I just can't wait to spend a little bit of time with you going over the Robert and Kelly story. And I also want to invite you to take the time to go to w austinggardner.com. That's kind of like the center of my ministry. I write on a lot of different places. I write on Substack in English and Spanish, I write on Beehive, I write on Alignment Ministries, but the kind of the center of where I try to put everything is waustinggartner.com. And I'd like to invite you to go read those. They don't go out in email. If you don't go looking for them, if you don't do a search and find them, you won't get them. So I challenge you to go look at that and consider all of those. The what we just talked about setting your affection, that's on waustergardner.com. There's over a hundred articles you can read now. Well, I love you, and I thank you for the chance I have to serve God and to love you. I love God, and I know I'm learning how much He loves me, and it's changing my life. I hope He'll let it, you'll let it change your life. God bless you today. Don't forget, Monday, starting Monday, you're going to get to hear from Robert and Kelly Canfield, and it is going to be exciting. Fact is, the Gary, as he filmed it, he told me he said it's one of the best I've ever done, and he's done hundreds, and he's good. You're going to enjoy it.
