Rich in Mercy

We praise and thank God for another opportunity when we can all meet together and sense the presence of our Lord with us even though we are not meeting in the same place, the Lord is with each one of us and just as we sang, we need Him every day, every hour, every moment we need Him and thank God we can express that in song and in prayer. We've been considering the wise woman in Proverbs 14 verse 1, a wise woman builds a house and by now we would have realized that we are not talking about the modern day wise woman of the world who builds a house thinking of the color schemes and the color of the curtains and the pictures and the carpet and all these ornaments and things that can go in the house but we are talking about the bodily home and that's so important in these days, you know in these days when there's so much of fear in people's hearts, fear of sickness and fear of the future and anxieties about the children and what's going to happen in the future, is there going to be another virus will come up, all those fears. We thank God that we as sisters and moms can help in building a house, a godly house where there's peace, where our children and our husbands and all those who come there and sense the peace of God, no anxiety, can see the joy, the children are growing up in the fear of the Lord and growing up to love the Lord and they feel secure, they see that mom and dad are not anxious about what's happening in the world, even though they hear other people talk about it, maybe the dad has lost his job, but the children know that one day when they're taking up a job, they may also lose a job, but see they can remember how their dad handled it, how their mom handled it, when they faced difficult situations and that's the godly home we want to build and we are building by God's grace and by his strength. And in Proverbs 9, we can read that wise wisdom has built a house with seven pillars and in James 3 and verse 17, we read about wisdom and seven qualities of wisdom, godly wisdom. So from that, we've been meditating on the different qualities, I said about purity and peaceable nature and today, I want us to meditate on one of the other pillars, a beautiful pillar which must be really strong, that is a pillar called full of mercy. We could have read it as merciful, but the Lord in his wisdom, the Holy Spirit has written full of mercy, which is different in one sense, that means in whatever level we are, we can be full of mercy. Maybe we are a child and we can, our capacity is just the capacity of a teaspoon, but that teaspoon of mercy can be full. Maybe as we grow in the Lord, our capacity is the size of a cup, but that cup can be full of mercy. When you think of the word, the pillar called peaceable, the quality of peaceable, do you remember, I was talking about peaceable being as far as it is possible to be at peace with all men, but it's not like that in mercy. It's not, the Lord doesn't say as much as it's possible to be merciful. Notice how he says, you have to be full of mercy and that really spoke to me. There's a difference how I can be full of mercy. Now, when we think of mercy, I think of, suppose you want to get a, um, I want to get a certificate or a recommendation for a job and I go to someone who's influential and I ask him or her to write a recommendation for me and I get that job or I get admission in that college, which I wanted. And then I think, okay, the fact is that person's recommendation helped me to get the job. But if I'm proud, I think, ah, it's not that recommendation. I was smart. I deserve that job. That's why I got it. That's how it is with mercy. The Lord has been so merciful to us. We cannot understand and we cannot fathom that, that mercy that the Lord has poured on us. It says we are objects of his mercy. But when we are full of ourselves and we are proud, ah, it's not so great that I am, I am what I am because I worked hard. I deserve it. But when we are really humble, we come to the Lord and we realize, Lord, it's nothing to do with me. It's just your mercy. I could have been born in a slum. I could have been sick. I could have been dead long ago, but it's your mercy which has kept me and you're a God of mercy. You're full of mercy. And that's why you've kept me all this time. That's why to understand God's mercy, you really have to be humble. Mary said in Luke chapter one, when Mary, when the angel told her, he said, Mary said, you have been merciful to the humble and you've been merciful for generations. You read that in Luke 1, 5, 0, 1, 15. You know, from generation to generation, you've been merciful. So when we are really humble, we begin to, only then we can understand the mercy of God. Otherwise it's just a word. It's just a quality and we think, ah, mercy. But when we, if we want to understand how merciful God has been to us, we have to be really humble. It says about God, God is rich in mercy. And another verse, it says that your mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. You're full of mercy. Let me read some of the verses, which speak of God's mercy. Ephesians 2, 4, it says, God is rich in mercy. 1 Peter 1, 3, God's great mercy caused us to be born again. Romans 9, 15 says, the Lord says, I will have mercy on whom I will have. Deuteronomy 4, 31, God is merciful. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget his covenant he swore to you. And in the new covenant also, we read, for us, I will be merciful to you. James 5, 11, the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Psalm 103, verse 8, Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. Lamentations 3, 22, this mercy has never come to an end. We know that song. This mercy has never come to an end. And it's time, it's good for us to stop and meditate on the mercy of the Lord, especially in these days when we can get easily distracted and think of the future and think what's happening in the world, what people are saying, what doctors are saying. We can say, what does the Lord say? My mercies will never come to an end. I'm remembering you. I'm merciful to you. I'll take care of you. We thank God for that security we have when the Lord himself, our Heavenly Father says that he'll be merciful to us. Mercy is something that we don't deserve. If we think from the time we were born or even before, the way God treated our parents and brought them to know salvation and helped us to grow in a godly family, all those are signs, just a little bit of God's mercy to us. And the more we meditate on God's mercy, we can say, Lord, your mercy is so deep, so wide, help me to begin to understand a little bit of it. So we have to look away from our present condition and what we are facing and take time to meditate on God's mercy, which we don't deserve. God is merciful, but how do we see God's mercy? God sent Jesus into the world and we can see expression of that mercy, full nature of God, that divine mercy when we see the life of Jesus. Throughout his life, he had time for anyone and everyone who came across his path. Any needy person, however tired he was, he came in a human body like us. But however tired he was, he had time for that person. Middle of the night, somebody would come to talk to him. He wouldn't think, oh, it's too late, come tomorrow, I'll talk to you tomorrow. He was there for everyone. Numerous people came, multitudes came with their sicknesses, sorrows, and he had time for each one of them. That shows his merciful nature. And even on the cross, we know. You know, when a person is dying, that's the time we think, oh, let that person die in peace into some sedation or some comfort. Make her or him lie down in comfort so that he can die in peace. Even at the time of his death, hanging on the cross, and his whole energy and strength had gone, he had time to speak to that dying thief. When he said, when the thief said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. The Lord was fresh enough to tell him, today you'll be with me in paradise. How wonderful when you think of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, Jesus has shown in his life, by his life and by his death, the merciful nature of God. And we can understand more and more of that merciful nature and the merciful nature that we can have. And Jesus also taught us about mercy. If you read the Beatitudes, what we call the Beatitudes in Matthew and Luke, first chapter five and six, Jesus taught us about mercy. He said, in Luke six, verse 36, he says, be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful. That means the standard of mercy that the Lord wants us to have, and we can have by his grace, is as much as our heavenly father. It's such a high level, but he says, be merciful. It's possible. I'll make you, I'll give you that nature. It's not that you have to do anything. I'll give it to you. You just come to me. And he said, if we are merciful, we will receive mercy. You and I, the amount of mercy we can get and that nature we can get is if we are merciful to others. I remember when we went to a house where there was an artesian well, and that's a special type of well, where the water always collects. And whenever you open the faucet and use water from that well, immediately a pump comes in and supplies water again. It keeps on filling and refilling. That's the wonder of that. You don't have to pump, automatically it fills. It's like that about mercy. You give out mercy and the Lord will pour mercy into your heart. The more merciful you are to others, the Lord says, don't worry, you won't get drained out of mercy. I'll pour mercy into your heart. So, you can be more and more merciful to others. What a wonderful savior we have. What a wonderful privilege we have that we'll never run short of that mercy and merciful nature. He'll keep on being merciful to us and we'll keep on being merciful to others. The Lord says in Proverbs 11, 25, if you water others, you will be watered. It means you water others with mercy. If you sprinkle a little bit, maybe all that you get is just a sprinkle of mercy. But if you keep on watering, mercy will just flow into our lives. Praise and thank God that we can be full of mercy. And then we also read in Matthew 5, blessed are the merciful. There was one thing I noticed when I studied Beatitudes. In Matthew 5, towards the end of the Beatitudes, Jesus said, be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. The same Beatitude, if you read in Luke 6, it says, be merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful. So, I connected the two. We can be perfect in mercy. On one side, Jesus said, be merciful. In another passage, it said, be perfect. So, mercy is an area where the Lord, by His grace, can make us perfect. It's not that we'll be perfect. All of us will have that same level which Jesus had. But as much as we are able to, as I said, if it's a teaspoon of mercy, our little child comes with some problem, we can have some mercy just enough for that child. We are facing some big trial and somebody does a lot of harm to us, the Lord will give us more mercy so that we can dole out more mercy and be able to forgive. First of all, we have to learn to forgive that person. Only then we can have mercy towards that person. If we have hatred and unforgiving spirit, then the merciful nature will never come out. But as much as we need, whatever our situation, maybe we are facing difficulty with some child who's sick, or some child who's struggling with the studies, or maybe a husband who's lost his job, an unconverted partner, or maybe some relative has come who needs our help. Whatever situation we are placed in, the Lord, if we ask Him, He will give us that amount of mercy that we need to give to that person. We can come to Him and ask Him in faith. And I was thinking of some examples of people who were merciful and some people who were unmerciful. Just a couple of examples. I was thinking of one unmerciful, very unmerciful person in the Bible, and that is Queen Jezebel. I want to talk of her because the Lord mentioned that name in Revelation 2, verses 18 and 19, in the church of Thyatira, there was a false prophetess, a very powerful lady who was controlling the church. That's why I thought of Queen Jezebel. What a wicked queen she was. She was the demon of unmerciful nature, I think. She persecuted the prophets. There was a poor man called Naboth who had a farm just next to the palace, and Ahab, her husband, wanted that farm. And she plotted and made people give a false testimony and got that Naboth killed so that the king could have that field. She had no conscience about being unmerciful. She was all out to persecute and kill the prophets. Even Elijah, the prophet, after he did such a wonderful thing of killing the prophets of Baal, she threatened, and her threat was so powerful that Elijah had to run for his life. Such a strong lady, such a strong queen she was. She brought idolatry and immorality among the children of Israel. And the Lord said in the church in Thyatira, there was a figure like that who was so powerful. And that I thought, even in the New Testament, even in these days, there can be a tendency for someone to be like that Jezebel, to have power over her husband, maybe, to influence the husband, her husband, so that he can do wrong things in the church. And that's where we need to search ourselves and say, Lord, especially if our husbands have some ministry in the church or something to do in the church, Lord, let me never have the spirit of Jezebel, even a drop of it, even a fraction of it, that I won't influence anyone and destroy the church of God. Let me not wield my power by some comment I made, or some judgmental attitude I have, or something maybe I tell my children and they are influenced. The spirit of Jezebel we have to watch. And that idolatry and adultery spirit won't come into the church because of us. And that's an area where I always search my heart and I say, Lord, help me to come down and down in your eyes, so that not even an atom of that spirit of Jezebel will come in my life. And because of me, the church should not suffer loss. So, that's why I said about Jezebel. And another person who had an unmerciful attitude was a prophet, that was Jonah. You know, God called Jonah and said, go to the Nineveh and tell those people, warn them that I'm going to punish them. But though Jonah heard God's voice, Jonah chapter 1 and 2, he didn't want the people of Nineveh to repent. So, we know what he did. We all know what he did. He went in the opposite direction. He got into the boat and then he brought trouble to the people who were in that boat. There was a storm because of him. And all the people in the ship would have perished because of him. And then he brought trouble upon himself. They put him in the, they threw him in the sea and he was swallowed by the fish. And for three days and nights he was in that fish's belly. Can you imagine when that fish spat him out on the land, what his state would have been? He would have been bleached with all the acids of the fish and all the juices that poured upon him. So, when he landed on the land in Nineveh, people would have said, what is this strange looking man, all bleached and his hair is all bleached. What happened to him? That may have been a sign for people to see and repent. I don't know. But, you know, even though people in Nineveh repented, Jonah was still unhappy. He couldn't bear the thought of people repenting. What an unmerciful man he was. He was sulking there and God had to deal with him. He said, you're sulking because a plant died. How would I feel if all these people and the cattle and all died because of their sin and they repented. You're not rejoicing. So, sometimes we can have that attitude of Jonah, that we don't want people to repent and we are not burdened about the sin that's happening. And we think, oh, I'm okay. My family is okay. I don't want to think of these other people who are perishing. And Jonah's unmerciful attitude speaks to us. He says, be concerned about the people who are perishing. Whoever comes across your path and you can give them your word, pray for them or give them your testimony or bring them to the church. Do your part so that more and more people can repent. Don't be sluggish about your spiritual life. Take your spiritual life, especially in these last days. Let us take our spiritual life and our calling seriously and use whatever means we can to our children, children's teachers whom we may meet or they meet in the playground, wherever we can, whatever way we can, text messages, emails, whatever way we can. Yes, this pandemic is spreading, but we thank God we have a hope. God is calling us. God is picking up people here and there into his kingdom. Let's do our part and take a lesson from Jonah. Then I thought of a couple of good examples. One was with Joseph. We all know a good example of mercy. Joseph, he didn't have the Bible. He only heard God's word and his conscience. God spoke to him. When he was cast into the pit by his brothers and then sold as a slave, we know the story. Then Potiphar's wife falsely accused him and put him in prison. Then the cupbearer of the king let him down, didn't speak for him. Finally, we know that God brought him out of all that and he was second in command in the king's court. At that time, when his brothers came, he could have been thinking, these are my brothers who put me in the pit and sold me as a slave and I suffered. This Potiphar's wife, she made me go to jail for so many years. My whole youth was spent in prison. And the cupbearer, he forgot about me. He could have had an unmerciful attitude and caught them one by one. Potiphar, you know what your wife did. And at least for righteousness sake, I want to bring out justice over here. And even when his brothers came, it won't be cruel to them. He did it in such a wise and kind way so that they were brought to tears and they said, you've been so hard on me. And still he said, God did it for good. Instead of our whole family perishing, our dad and all of us perishing, God brought some good out of it. All things work together for good. He said those words, the same Romans 8.28 in his own way, he said God did it so that we could be saved. And he had no bitterness towards the cupbearer who let him down. He said everything worked out for good. That's an example about a merciful person. And I already said about Jesus, our high priest, not only on earth he was merciful, but right now in heaven, he's our merciful high priest. That's what we read in Hebrews 4.15 and 16. He's our merciful high priest. He's standing before the father and saying, father, my daughter over there, she's doing all this, but be merciful to her. I died for her. I shed my blood for her. Be merciful to her. And he's interceding for her. He sees our shortcomings because he came as a man. He was tempted in all points like us. And that comes more real to us. Jesus understands us. He's merciful to us. He's standing at the right hand of God, interceding, saying, my child, my daughter is going through this. She's suffering. She has health problems, father. She has all these other problems. She's facing injustice. She's facing problems from her relatives. Be merciful to her, and that's the privilege we have because Jesus is standing at the right hand of the father, interceding for us. He's also so full of mercy for us. He never let us down. He's on our side against the devil. Even if we are tempted and we have fallen so many times, he comes to pick us up and says, don't worry my daughter. I also went through this part. I understand. I'll take you and I'm merciful. I'm pleading for you in the father's presence. What a wonderful savior we have. What can we ever do to repay that mercy which he has received? We have just been objects of mercy and our whole life lived for him is not enough to repay that mercy which he has shown to us. Then I was thinking of the tax collector. Jesus said in the parable of the tax collector in Luke 18, verse 13, the tax collector and the Pharisee who spoke to faith. And the Pharisee was full of self-righteousness, but the tax collector was crying out for mercy. He said, Lord, be merciful to me. And he went home justifying the Lord. He said it as a parable, but we can have that attitude of the Pharisee and say, come to God and say, I have been a good person. I'm in the new covenant church. I'm so-and-so, so-and-so, and all the certificates we can show before the Lord, but we won't be justified unless we come like the tax collector and say, Father, Lord, be merciful to me. As long as, and as often as we are like that, that humble, contrite, penitent sinner, then we'll be justified. And that's what we learn from that, the cry of that tax collector. Then I want to share something really wonderful. And that is about Abel and, if you read to Abel and Jesus, the blood of Abel and the blood of Jesus. If you look at Hebrews 4, I mean Genesis 4, you know the story of what happened to Abel. Abel brought the sacrifice and God accepted that sacrifice. And Cain was upset because of that. Cain killed his brother. And Abel, when he was dying, he would have thought, God, you saw me, you saw how I brought the sacrifice and you accepted my sacrifice. My brother is killing me and I'm dying. Nobody here knows, has seen this, but God, you are seeing it. That's the cry of Abel. He was crying. And in Hebrews 12, 24, it says, Abel's voice still speaks. It's still speaking, but his was a cry of, Lord, avenge me. Do some justice for me. I've been killed, but avenge me. Vengeful. And many times we have that cry of Abel, Lord, avenge me. This injustice which I'm suffering, Lord, you see it. And that we can cry, we can have that attitude of Abel, which God accepted. And he's an example to us. But he says in Hebrews 12, the blood of Jesus is much more, it's a better way. In all of Hebrews, it says about better. It's a better thing, better way. And the blood of Jesus was crying out in a much better way. When Jesus died on the cross and his blood was spilt on the ground, just like Abel's, from his hands and from his side and from his feet. In the drop by drop, it was falling on the ground. What was the cry coming out from his heart? He was saying, Father, have mercy on them. Father, forgive them. He was not saying, Father, these Pharisees and these Roman people, I'm unjustly being killed. I'm suffering all this. Can't you see it? One day, punish them. One day, judge them. His cry was not like that. His cry was mercy. Father, have mercy. Father, forgive them for they know not what to do. And he says, Hebrews, it says, we must have that as an example. What a wonderful Savior we have, that even his death and his shedding of his blood is an example for us. The Lord says, follow Jesus, even in death. Don't cry out for vengeance when you're unjustly treated. You just say, have that attitude that Jesus had even when he shed his blood. Mercy. Mercy on them. Mercy on these Romans. Mercy on my child who's singing. She's stumbling and falling. I shed my blood for her. Father, have mercy. What a wonderful Savior we have, that even now, the blood of Jesus speaks to us, speaks of mercy. Then another wonderful verse I want to share with you, it really spoke to me, was in James 2, verse 13. I want to read that verse to you. Okay, I've written it down. Speak and act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. Judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Those were like a lot of words, sentences, which didn't make sense when I first read it. But then I thought it was like a jigsaw puzzle, which just fitted so closely. He's telling us, you speak and act as though you're going to be judged one day. And judge others, because they are under the law of liberty. They are free to do what they want. That is the law, which is universal law for all of us, is the law of liberty. But you who know this new covenant, you speak and act as one who's going to be judged. You're going to be judged one day. And when you're going to be judged, judgment will be without mercy, who shows no mercy. If you have been, if I have been unmerciful in some way to somebody, the Lord has revealed to us so much about mercy. But if I have been unmerciful in a little way, I'll be judged according to that. If I have been abundant in mercy, I'll be judged in that measure. What a wonderful verse that is. And you know, I remember one time when that verse came powerfully to me. It was some years ago when CFC had first started. I mean, early years of CFC had started and some time had passed by and my children were growing up. All of them were in school. Some of them struggling with their studies. Some of them had some sickness or other needed some surgery later on. All kinds of things were happening. And one of our parents got a stroke and we had to take care of that parent. And another parent was beginning to get Alzheimer's. So we had to move that parent to live with us. And a lot of sisters wanted to come and spend time with me for medical advice, spiritual advice. Some were not permitted to come for our meetings. So they'd come during the week and have some time of prayer and fellowship. And I would share what was shared, what was spoken in the meetings. So all those things were happening in my life. And you know, in our 40s and all, some changes, physiological changes also happened in us. So all those things were happening and I didn't realize my spiritual walk with the Lord was getting a little impaired. And I could see a crust was forming in my soul, in my spiritual life, a crust, a thin crust. I wouldn't say I was unmerciful, but a lack of mercy. I saw all these people and I thought in my heart, I am the one who needs help. I need help. I can't cope with all these things. And that judgmental attitude, which I was talking about was coming in. And that crust of unmerciful, lack of mercy was coming in. You know, like food kept out and it begins to get bad. Then the flies come and sit on it. It was like that in my spiritual life. But thank God this verse, this verse which I just read, James 2, 12 and 13, just spoke to me. I can still remember what a jolt it came and said, Lord, you're speaking to me. Thank you, Lord. You have mercy on me that you're speaking this wonderful thing to me, that one day I'll be judged if I'm not going to be merciful. It came so powerful to me that even now, when I think of it, I say, Lord, I'm so proud of you to teach me that lesson of being merciful. Whatever others may do, their weaknesses or their wrongs, maybe they're 100% wrong in what they're doing, but God has been so merciful to me that I can give a little bit of that mercy to that person. He or she may not have seen things, how God has shown things to me, but God has shown me just be merciful. If you're merciful, you'll receive mercy, as I said earlier. Those who are merciful will obtain mercy. And judgment will be without mercy who has shown no mercy. That really spoke to me and I thank God it came not as a condemnation, but with healing. The Lord said, I'll scrape off this unmerciful nature. It's okay. By my precious blood, I shed my blood for you. I'll take it off, but I'll put instead a merciful nature and you can grow in mercy. You can grow and grow and grow till you you can become like your Heavenly Father. But it's such a high standard. I know I may never reach there. Only when I reach eternity, I realize what a merciful Heavenly Father we have and what a merciful Savior we have. Without end, He says, with mercy without end. But at least I've gone a little more than what I had before. Me, who was so unmerciful and judgmental to others and couldn't stand the shortcoming of others. Even my children, imagine our little children, you can be unmerciful to them. What do they know? They know so little. Even their understanding is so little. But I can be unmerciful to them and the Lord says, I'll change you. You will be merciful to the hardest person. To the most difficult person, you'll be able to be merciful because I have been merciful to you. And then that was such a precious experience for me. And then the last part, it says, mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy triumphs over judgment. And that also spoke to me. When I have become merciful to somebody and I show mercy to someone, the Lord has seen that and He is waving a flag. Triumph, you won. You won this time. You won in this test of mercy. You triumphed. You've got a gold medal in this merciful nature. And all over, if heaven had newspapers, it would be in the headlines, mercy has triumphed. It would be the headline of that newspaper. Mercy has triumphed in this situation. You know, when Jesus died on the cross and He defeated Satan, all over the demon world, it was proclaimed, Jesus has conquered Satan. In Satan, you're defeated. You've been defeated and you're crushed forever because Jesus has died on the cross. And same way, that proclamation will be there for each one of us. Mercy triumphs. Mercy has triumphed in Annie's life. Mercy has triumphed in this situation where she was tempted. Mercy has triumphed. And we get a gold medal over there waiting for us. And that flag is waving, that victory flag. Praise God. Praise God for such a wonderful Savior who has such a high standard but we can reach that little by little in the areas which God, God is the one who doles out experiences. For one, it's sickness. For another, it is some other. For another, it's an unconverted husband. For another, it's some old relative, aged relative whom you have to take care. Whatever, God is the one who doles out each one. But the object is, one day you're going to be merciful. One day you're going to be merciful as your family father is. So I praise and thank God for this opportunity He has given us. We sing that song, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. For every day, your mercies are new. We sing those songs. But there's one song I want to share which we sing in our band. Lucy, let's see. Maybe you've heard it. Lord, help me be merciful to others just as you've been merciful to me. Help me lest I fall. Hear me when I call. Help me lest I fall into the pit from whence you've set me free. Lord, I know it was just thy mercy that helped me, thy salvation to see. Lord, help me be merciful to others just as you've been merciful to me. I praise and thank God that we can cry out to God and reach our hands out to God and he'll help us, help us to grow in this merciful nature. Amen. Jesus said, all authority is given to me. Satan has been defeated. So he's given me, all authority on earth has been given to him. So he can hold us up and he can, he's defeated Satan. He'll help us to be more and more victorious, especially in this area of mercy. Amen. Shall we close in prayer? Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your precious word and thank you for all that you've done for us. Heavenly Father, you've been so merciful. Help us in these days not to think of our earthly condition or what's happening on earth, but let us lift our eyes to you. Our Heavenly Father, you've been so merciful to us and nothing will happen to us without your knowledge. You're holding us up. We thank you, Lord Jesus, you've been so merciful, an example of mercy to us. And thank you, Lord, that we can call to you in our time of need. When we are tempted to be unmerciful, you can help us to be merciful and teach us what it is to be merciful. We desire mercy, not sacrifice. Yes, Lord, we don't want to, we have nothing to sacrifice. Only we can bring our bodies and ourselves to you and ask you to give us that merciful nature with your hand. Help each one of us here, Lord, and our families. Give us grace to bring up our children in your care. We pray for those who are sick and at this time, Lord, we pray that you touch your healing hand on them and comfort those who have lost their loved ones because of this pandemic or other reasons. We pray that you pour comfort into their hearts, Lord. We ask all these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen.