Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Cor. 1:3-4
Dear heavenly Father, what a joy it is to begin this day knowing you as the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. Your mercies are new every morning and they are grace-shaped for every circumstance, exigency, and trouble. Far from despising our cries for mercy, you delight in them. What a loving, caring, redeeming Father you are.
As you are merciful with us, grant us merciful hearts towards others. Father, some of us are struggling to be merciful towards people we love. We feel used and used up. We need wisdom and grace, for loving well in difficult and depleting relationships. How do we stay engaged without enabling destructive behavior? How do we love the addicts in our lives? We need the strength and sacrificial love you alone can give us.
Father, some of us need Good-Samaritan-mercy for entering the stories of injustice in our communities. Don’t let us easily pass by the poor, the marginalized, and the broken. May our increased love for a theology of grace compel us unto multiplied expressions of grace. We confess both our tentativeness and your tenaciousness, to enlarge our hearts and engage our hands.
And even as you are the Father of mercies, so you are the God of all comfort—granting us comfort to share with others. Father, to whom would you send us today to offer your compassionate heart and tear-wiping hand? Help us to walk with grieving, hurting friends—those with fresh loses and those with chronic pain(s).
Father, our greatest comfort comes from realizing what you have done for us in Jesus. Because of Jesus, we are fully forgiven and declared righteous, your adopted children and beloved forever. We praise, bless and adore you! So very Amen we pray, in Jesus holy and loving name.