Fifth Sunday after Trinity – Monday

I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant. – Genesis 32:10.

Thus spake Jacob, the patriarch. And so every Christian should say the same, because it is certainly true with all of us. We are not worthy of even the smallest amount of the blessings that the Lord showers upon us. He confers nothing but Fatherly, divine goodness and mercy upon us, though He finds no merit or worthiness in us. O let us search and examine our lives and our ways! Have we deserved it that God provides for us and watches over us, that He governs and protects us, yes, even that He chastises us as a faithful father does his children, and that He makes all things work together for our good in such a manner that, in the end, we reach the goal which His grace in Christ sets before us? Have we deserved any of this? Certainly not! In fact, by our sins we have deserved the exact opposite. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him” (Psalm 103:13).

That we respect and honor Him, that we live in childlike fear of God, this, too, is His mercy. But when this fear of God is such a struggling and miserable little plant in the garden of our heart, that is our fault. But God continues to show us His mercy. What do we owe Him for all this? “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?” (Psalm 116:12). Ah, indeed, I cannot render Him anything as a sufficiently worthy recompense. But it is my duty to thank Him, to praise Him, to serve and to obey Him. Is it not so? Surely we owe this to God. Our thanks and our praise, our service and obedience, will be poor and paltry enough in comparison with the benefits we receive from God. But our heavenly Father will, notwithstanding, accept the feeble beating of our hearts toward Him, our feeble stammering of praise and thanks, our feeble efforts. He makes the fullness of Christ’s righteousness replace our deficiency; and His Spirit makes intercession for us. God be praised!

PRAYER – O Lord God, heavenly Father, from whom we receive all good gifts unceasingly and in abundant measure, and who daily, out of pure grace, guards us from all evil: continue to grant me, I implore Thee, a rich measure of Thy Holy Spirit, working through Thy Word, that acknowledging, in true faith, all this goodness from Thee,, I may now and evermore thank and praise Thy loving-kindness and tender mercy, through Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, our Lord. Amen.

O Father, deign Thou, I beseech Thee,

to listen to my earthly lays;

a nobler strain in heaven shall reach Thee,

when I with angels hymn Thy praise;

and learn amid their choirs to sing,

loud hallelujahs to my King.

(Hymn 30, st. 6; TLH)