Gracious Father

The Lord passed before [Moses] and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7)

I had a good friend at one time whom I've spoken about before, an older gentleman named Juergan, who was a mentor in faith and leadership to me. He had many attributes I could go into, but I loved it when he prayed. He opened every prayer with, "Gracious and merciful God...." (Now you know where I got that from.)

It is a way to approach God with humility and on bent knee verbally. God tells Moses as he is receiving the new tablets (the first ones having been broken in anger at Israel's unfaithfulness) in today's passage that He is "gracious." Saturday's psalm (145), in which we used v 9, "The Lord is good to all...", says the same thing in v 8, "The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." David, familiar with Moses and the story, probably quoted directly.

God is good, "gracious, and merciful." His mercy endures forever. His grace is extended through the merciful act of providing His Son as a propitiation for our sin. "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2) His suffering, death and resurrection stood for us.

God is gracious and merciful. I'll thank Juergan when I see Him, when we meet again.

We pray: Gracious and merciful God, we give thanks to You for being good, all the time. Your goodness extends in ways we cannot understand, but for it, we say and give thanks. In Christ's most precious and holy name, Amen.