Anytime we try to imitate God, we quickly realize our inadequacy. Yet today God tells us to model our forgiveness on His: a boundless, free, and loving forgiveness based on the sacrifice of Christ. How could our sinful hearts ever forgive like that? The Prayer of the Day asks that the mercy and grace of God precede us and follow after us, that we might love God with undivided hearts–hearts always ready to forgive as God does: sins are forgiven, forgotten, forever. The Church forgives as God forgives.

Today Christ tells us that for Him and for us, going God’s way means death must come before life. He calls on us to deny ourselves and follow Him on the way of the cross. Those words offend our sinful flesh and make our Old Adam cry with Peter, “Never!” So today the Church prays for the never-failing mercy of Christ that we might avoid such wicked and harmful thoughts and instead be guided on the cross-laden path to salvation. Then, and only then, do these words of Christ cease offending our flesh and become a joy and delight for our heart (Verse of the Day). The Church is militant: first the cross, then the crown.

Nothing can keep our Redeemer from upholding His promised salvation. Neither false expectations nor the gates of hell, neither an Egyptian army nor a flowing river, not even the great tribulation of the end times will keep our God from preserving His Church. The Church will stand forever.

This week we begin five weeks of focus on the Church. The Church is meant for all people. The Prayer of the Day reminds us that it is only by God’s gift of grace that we come into His presence to offer true and faithful service. Today’s lessons teach that the gift of grace given to Israel, God also intended to give through Israel to the world. The Church is meant for all people: a display of God’s mercy and a result of the living and active Word of God.