The Church is the Bride of Christ, and the Bridegroom’s love has no end. Do our hearts bow before Him in awareness of His beauty and devotion? Join Barbara Duguid, the author of this month’s featured resource Streams of Mercy, as she adores God with words of wonder and praise:
Your love for us is changeless and unending. We confess that our love for you is weak, flickering, variable, and laced with selfish ambition and desire. Your love is like a mighty ocean that rushes toward us each day and envelops us with kindness, mercy, and steadfast faithfulness. Our love for you is like a fleeting mist: a vapor that rises from time to time and quickly evaporates in the heat of life’s pain and suffering. Father, forgive us for loving so many other gods and giving our lives to them, while failing to notice your hand of love at work for us each day. You govern the entire universe and work all things together for our good, but we are quick to blame you, to turn away from you, and to give our worship and love to many other husbands. Lord, forgive us for our many sins.
Jesus, thank you for your changeless and unending love. You loved us before the foundation of the world and entered history in order to redeem us. As a human being, you loved God and your neighbor perfectly, loving and serving God and keeping every one of his statutes and commandments. You did this because you knew that we never could, and so you gave us the gift of your spotless perfection.
Holy Spirit, fill us with gratitude for the love we have in Christ that will never let us go. Though our sins are many and increase in number every day, lift up our heads and show us the cross. We thank you that we cannot close our hearts to you, for your love is relentless, and in faithfulness you pursue us and draw us back to you time and time again.
Prayerfully cherish the Church’s beloved husband, Jesus Christ. Purchase your copy of Streams of Mercy.
Excerpt taken from pp. 52–53 of Streams of Mercy by Barbara Duguid, ed. by Iain Duguid (ISBN 987-1-62995-342-7) with permission from P&R Publishing Co., PO Box 817, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865 (www.prpbooks.com).