Good Evening, Family! 🤴
This week, we praise God for:
💟 Karina is grateful for all of our prayers for Alejandro. One big and welcome change of this deployment is that they are able to pull into port for the time being. They are all grateful. Please keep praying for their protection. ⚓️
💟 Damaris is grateful that a year after the start of Covid and a year after her diagnosis and subsequent illness, she is alive and well, and so is her family and church family.
💟 Vasthi also thanks God for His mercy and protection over each of us.
💟 María is grateful for answered prayer for allowing her to work from home on Fridays, and she's also grateful for God health.
We are also praying for:
🛐 Bianca, Vishal and Sebastian Suri. May the Lord shower their beautiful family with blessings from above.
🛐 Our sister, Evelyn, as she is having surgery tomorrow, Monday. May the Lord go with her and protect her during and after the procedure and grant fer a full recovery.
🛐 Traveling mercies for Kristina, Andy and Seth as they make their way back from their anniversary trip. We thank God for granting them another year together as husband and wife, and mommy and daddy to Seth
🛐 Maria's friends, Karen and Todd. They have both contacted Covid and need our prayers.
🛐 Jeanette's in-laws (Carlitos' family) is also dealing with Covid. Pray for healing and restoration.
🛐 Maria, who has been suffering from Tinnitus in her ear. She’s asking for prayer as she is going to see a specialist. Let’s ask for wisdom and for the doctor to offer her much-needed relief and healing.
🛐 Alex's neighbor, Angie, who has contracted Covid. May the Lord protect her and keep her from serious illness.
🛐 A dear friend of Doris’, whose entire family is dealing with Covid and underlying conditions. May the Lord protect them and heal them.
🛐 Doris, and her daughters, Jackie, Amanda and their children, Skylar, Heaven Lee, Dorian, Zaire and Amir. May God keep working miracles in their lives.
🛐 Karina, to be led by God regarding her return to in-person school. May it be God’s will.
🛐 Nelly’s neighbor, Provi. She is a cancer survivor and just spent several weeks in the hospital for heart issues. She lives alone and shouldn't be unsupervised at this stage. Please pray that God will work this situation out for her and give her strength.
🛐 Carole is requesting we keep her friend, Alissia, in our prayers. She is a single mother of 2 who needs our prayers as sure has tested positive for Covid and is not doing well. May the Lord intervene on her behalf and restore her to good health.
🛐 John Vega, whose iect Seth in enverything he does and everywhere he goes!
🛐 Karina asked that we keep prayoing for Tamara, that she will be able convinced that God has great plans for her...greater than she can ask or imagine!
🛐 Anna Ortiz. Kristina provided us this update: They found another lump behind her neck and she's now receiving treatment for that as well. Despite it all she's in good spirits and thankful for the prayers.
Tonight's Devotional was submitted for yesterday by Kevin, but was postponed because of the tragedy in Boulder, CO.🙏🏽
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." Matthew 5:7
Luis Palau, a well-known evangelist who lost his battle with cancer on March 11th, told the story of a mother who approached Napoleon to seek a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that because the young man had committed a certain offense twice, justice demanded death.
"But I don't ask for justice," the mother explained; "I plead for mercy."
"Your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied.
"Sir," the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for."
"Well, then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy"--and he spared the son's life.
Jesus told a story of a man who is beaten, robbed, and left for dead, only to be cared for by a Samaritan man, his enemy. The beaten man is totally dependent on the mercy of the good Samaritan, and his only hope is that someone will show him mercy. Never could he have imagined that the much needed mercy would come from such an expected source.
Our only hope is that God will have mercy, on us, his enemies because of our sin. When Jesus sees you beaten up by the guilt of sin, in the grip of an addiction, or otherwise desperate because your life is ruined, he pours into your wounds the love and mercy of God and gives you a sense of peace that only God can give.
In Jesus' story there is also a priest and a Levite--dedicated religious people--who walk past and ignore the beaten man. Sometimes Christians get so busy - or worse - so uppity, that they neglect opportunity after opportunity to show mercy to those who need it most. How many opportunities have we walked past or ignored?
It would be wise for each of us to remember and KNOW that we are always- PERPETUALLY, in need of mercy for sins we have committed far more than twice.
Therefore, let's be merciful towards others. In fact, let's make it our business to do our best to never miss an opportunity to show mercy.
-Kevin