Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer touches on deep and painful realities, the loss of unborn children, families torn apart by abandonment, children left alone, and people with no home or refuge. It is right to bring all of this before the Lord, and to ask for His mercy.
Scripture is honest about how serious these things are. When people turn away from God there is often a lack of truth and mercy and knowledge of God, and that shows itself in lying and violence and impurity and broken covenants, until one tragedy touches another. God does judge sin, and there are times when He declares that mercy is withdrawn because people have persisted in rebellion. That judgment is severe, because apart from His mercy nothing remains.
Yet the same Scriptures declare that His mercy endures forever. That is repeated again and again so that it will be impressed upon our hearts. His mercy is not a right that we deserve. It is a gift that He gives because He is sovereign. As He told Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. It does not depend on our effort or our worthiness, but on God who shows mercy. He is not eager to judge. He delights to show mercy and He even puts intercession in the hearts of His people because He is looking for a reason to be merciful.
You quoted two verses that speak directly to abandonment. Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me, and can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne. Even when a mother or father fails, even when a husband or wife walks away, even when a brother or sister or friend betrays, the Lord does not forget. His compassion is higher than the heavens above the earth, and it endures forever. That does not mean we have exhausted His mercy. No matter how far we have gone, if we call upon Him He hears and answers and forgives because His mercy endures forever.
That mercy and truth have met together in one place, in the person of Jesus Christ. Through Him we can have peace with God and be made righteous before God. He is ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy to all who call upon Him. Those who do not call do not receive, but all who do call, even when their trouble has come through their own choices and their own despising of His counsel, find that when they cry to the Lord in their distress He saves them out of that distress.
It is right to entrust these innocent children, those who were aborted or miscarried and despised by those who should have protected them, to the care of God and to ask Him to receive them. He sees each life He created, and He is the only one who can give them a home in heaven. At the same time, God calls those who remain to turn from sin and to trust in Jesus alone for salvation. He alone is the way of forgiveness. Families that have been broken by sin and death can know His restoration, just as He has promised restoration even after severe judgment. He will complete the work that concerns those who trust Him.
So we pray with you. We ask the Lord to have mercy on those who are suffering abandonment and homelessness, on children left alone and on neighborhoods marked by disorder and betrayal. We ask Him to show mercy to mothers and fathers who have rejected their children, that they would repent and call upon Christ and find forgiveness. We entrust every unborn child to His sovereign and compassionate hands. And we ask Him to give comfort to all who grieve, reminding them that His goodness and mercy will follow those who trust Him all the days of their lives, and that His mercy, received through Jesus, endures forever.
Scripture is honest about how serious these things are. When people turn away from God there is often a lack of truth and mercy and knowledge of God, and that shows itself in lying and violence and impurity and broken covenants, until one tragedy touches another. God does judge sin, and there are times when He declares that mercy is withdrawn because people have persisted in rebellion. That judgment is severe, because apart from His mercy nothing remains.
Yet the same Scriptures declare that His mercy endures forever. That is repeated again and again so that it will be impressed upon our hearts. His mercy is not a right that we deserve. It is a gift that He gives because He is sovereign. As He told Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. It does not depend on our effort or our worthiness, but on God who shows mercy. He is not eager to judge. He delights to show mercy and He even puts intercession in the hearts of His people because He is looking for a reason to be merciful.
You quoted two verses that speak directly to abandonment. Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me, and can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne. Even when a mother or father fails, even when a husband or wife walks away, even when a brother or sister or friend betrays, the Lord does not forget. His compassion is higher than the heavens above the earth, and it endures forever. That does not mean we have exhausted His mercy. No matter how far we have gone, if we call upon Him He hears and answers and forgives because His mercy endures forever.
That mercy and truth have met together in one place, in the person of Jesus Christ. Through Him we can have peace with God and be made righteous before God. He is ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy to all who call upon Him. Those who do not call do not receive, but all who do call, even when their trouble has come through their own choices and their own despising of His counsel, find that when they cry to the Lord in their distress He saves them out of that distress.
It is right to entrust these innocent children, those who were aborted or miscarried and despised by those who should have protected them, to the care of God and to ask Him to receive them. He sees each life He created, and He is the only one who can give them a home in heaven. At the same time, God calls those who remain to turn from sin and to trust in Jesus alone for salvation. He alone is the way of forgiveness. Families that have been broken by sin and death can know His restoration, just as He has promised restoration even after severe judgment. He will complete the work that concerns those who trust Him.
So we pray with you. We ask the Lord to have mercy on those who are suffering abandonment and homelessness, on children left alone and on neighborhoods marked by disorder and betrayal. We ask Him to show mercy to mothers and fathers who have rejected their children, that they would repent and call upon Christ and find forgiveness. We entrust every unborn child to His sovereign and compassionate hands. And we ask Him to give comfort to all who grieve, reminding them that His goodness and mercy will follow those who trust Him all the days of their lives, and that His mercy, received through Jesus, endures forever.
