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A Prayer Celebrating God’s Memory and Mercy

     He [God] has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors. Luke 1:51-55

Dear heavenly Father, as the Holy Spirit prayed this magnificent prayer though a stunned Mary, little could she have imagined what was ahead. Her birth pangs in nine months would be greatly surpassed by her heart pains thirty-three years later at the foot of her son’s cross.

But there’s one thing she did understand—at least one thing she took to heart from her years of growing up in a home of faith. She was taught that you are a God who remembers to be merciful. You have proven this beyond all doubt.

Father, I worship and adore you this morning for your memory and for your mercy. With the gift of Jesus, you remembered all the promises you made to Abraham and to his descendants, which includes me. I am humbled and awed; thankful and joyful; in Christ and at rest.

You promised Abraham you would take him to a land of your choosing; make of him a great nation for your purposes; and through that nation, you would ultimately bless all nations and people groups on the face of the earth (Gen. 12-17). No one could possibly fulfill these promises but you.

Like Mary, Abraham could not have begun to imagine how all of this would play out. But the promises you made to Abraham and the prayer prayed through Mary all find their fulfillment in your Son, Jesus. I praise you for your memory and your mercy, Father.

Indeed, Lord Jesus, you are the fulfillment of all the covenant promises God has made. Because of your faithfulness, from cradle to the cross, we live in the embrace of the Father of mercies—whose mercies are new every morning. You have fulfilled God’s law for us, taken our guilt from us and placed your Spirit in us. Great is your love and grace!

Because of your perfect work on our behalf, the only sign of amnesia in our Father is his forgetting to remember our sins against us. Hallelujah, many times over! Lord Jesus, what peace, joy and gratitude this brings us today. So very Amen I pray, with the faith of Abraham and the humility of Mary, in your gracious and loving name.

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