1. Who has made you and still preserves you? 2. What moves God to do this? 3. Whom among His creatures does God especially love? 4. How does He show His goodness and love toward His children? 5. What furthermore moves God to care for His children? 6. What does it mean that God is merciful? 7. How are His goodness and mercy called in our Catechism? 8. What do we read Ps. 103,13? 9. How does God daily show His fatherly goodness toward you? 10. How are His goodness and mercy furthermore called in our Catechism? 11. Why is His goodness called a divine goodness? 12. What do we therefore confess because God daily shows us His fatherly love and mercy? 13. What does this mean, "I believe in God the Father Almighty"? 14. Why may and should we trust and confide in God as in our Father? 15. What does not move God to love us and provide for us? 16. Why do we not merit God's love and kindness? 17. Why are we not worthy of His goodness and mercy? 18. What have we sinners merited? 19. Recite what Jacob said to the Lord. Gen. 32,10. LESSON 18. The First Article. For His Goodness And Mercy I Will Thank And Praise My Father, And Serve And Obey Him. Which is the First Article? _I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth._ What does this mean? _I believe that for all this it is my duty to thank and praise, to serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true._ 1. Great are the blessings which we daily receive from our heavenly Father. It is He who preserves our bodies and souls. It is He who provides us with all that we need for our lives, and who defends us against all danger and guards and protects us from all evil. And He does all this without any merit or worthiness in me, moved purely by His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy. When we consider all this love and kindness, we ask, _What, then, is our duty toward our Father in heaven? "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?"_ Ps. 116,12. Our Catechism answers: _"For all which it is my duty to thank and praise, to serve and obey Him."_