{"id":23900,"date":"2020-12-22T12:22:02","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T17:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/?p=23900"},"modified":"2020-12-22T12:22:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T17:22:03","slug":"gods-mercy-and-faithfulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/gods-mercy-and-faithfulness\/","title":{"rendered":"God\u2019s Mercy and Faithfulness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Advent, Year B<\/strong><br><strong>22 December 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>God\u2019s Mercy and Faithfulness<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reading:<\/strong>&nbsp; Psalm 89: 1-4, 19-26<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Scripture:&nbsp;<\/strong>\u201cI will sing of your steadfast love, O&nbsp;Lord,&nbsp;forever;&nbsp;with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.&nbsp;I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.\u201d(Psalm 89:1-2)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reflection:&nbsp;<\/strong>The first four verses of this psalm draw our attention to the mercy and faithfulness of God, as recognized and acknowledged by the psalmist who sings praises to God and declares his intention to \u201cproclaim\u201d God\u2019s faithfulness to all generations. As believers we each have the responsibility to spread the Good news of God\u2019s &nbsp;loving kindness and faithfulness. How do we do so in times such as these? This year has been a true test of our faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHave we been abandoned by God?\u201d some may ask, amidst the tears and fears, the sadness and despair. But, even as we travel through what for some may feel like the valley of the shadow of death, we as believers know that by His grace and mercy will be our strong support. It may be difficult to appreciate His mercy and faithfulness in times as trying as these, but God has proven to be faithful and merciful as evidenced by our appreciation of the Advent season. God in His mercy sent His Son to save mankind, that, is mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The COVID experience has afforded us the opportunity to look more closely at His blessings in our lives, many of these blessings we perhaps before now, took for granted. So we now appreciate more deeply, the power of prayer, the beauty of nature, the revitalization of the environment, and the care of loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Christmas approaches, we give thanks and celebrate the fulfillment &nbsp;of God\u2019s Covenant to David and his descendants, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. For soon, like the psalmist, we can shout:&nbsp;&#8216;You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation!&#8217;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Meditation<\/strong><strong>:<\/strong>&nbsp;He continues to provide for us. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prayer:<\/strong>&nbsp;We thank You, Father in Heaven, for Your love and faithfulness to us. Grant us the grace to have greater faith in Your goodness and to be assured that You will never leave us nor forsake us. &nbsp;<strong>Amen.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>St. Jude&#8217;s Church<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stony Hill<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and The Cayman Islands<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>22 December 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Advent, Year B22 December 2020 God\u2019s Mercy and Faithfulness Reading:&nbsp; Psalm 89: 1-4, 19-26 Scripture:&nbsp;\u201cI will sing of your steadfast love, O&nbsp;Lord,&nbsp;forever;&nbsp;with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.&nbsp;I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.\u201d(Psalm 89:1-2)&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":23735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23901,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23900\/revisions\/23901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}