A Work in Progress….

Micah 7:7 But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

Micah 7:7 brings to mind Psalm 71:14: “As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more,” a philosophy I fully believe in. Hope is a beautiful, necessary, fragile thing, and to me, this chapter is all about the rightness of our hope placed in God, in His mercy, compassion, and love.

Micah 7:8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.

Human beings are fickle and fallible. Putting our faith in humans doesn’t end well. We disappoint. We get angry for no good reason. We refuse to forgive or take our own sweet time about it. We use a different measuring stick with fellow humans than we want God to use with us. Jesus, Help us.

Micah 7:18 Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.

Precious Savior, Thank You for Your love, mercy, and compassion. Help me to be more like You in my ability to show these things to my fellow humans. Thank You that I can always place my hope in You and that hope in You is never misplaced. Amen.

Micah 7:19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

Have a blessed day.

Micah 6:6 With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

What does God want from me? That seems to be the question asked in these verses. What’s going to make God happy? It’s as if they don’t have any real concept of what God wants from them.

Micah 6:7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

But God doesn’t want stuff, things. (Which seriously causes me to want to re-examine all the stuff in my own life, by the way.) Verse 8 spells it out specifically: God wants us “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with….God.” Justice. Mercy. Humility. At once both so much easier and so much harder than stuff.

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Lord, You have no desire to trick us or keep us in the dark about Your desire for us. Thank You. You spell out for us, clearly, what will make You happy with us: Justice. Mercy. Humility. Thank You for Your clarity. Lord, we seem to insist on making difficult something which should be so easy. Forgive us. Draw us closer. Amen.

Micah 6:9 Listen! The Lord is calling to the city— and to fear your name is wisdom— “Heed the rod and the One who appointed it.

Have a blessed day.

Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

Micah 5 heralds the coming of the Savior: “…out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” I’m not sure I ever made that connection before.

Micah 5:3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.

Not only that, but Micah 5:5 heralds the fact that Christ “…will be our peace….” This is definitely something I’m still trying to master, allowing Christ alone to be my peace. Bless my heart….

Micah 5:4 He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.

Lord of all Creation, Thank You for Your word, for Your birth, death, and resurrection, for Your peace that surpasses all understanding. Help me to root myself in Your peace alone. Draw me closer. Amen.

Micah 5:5 And he will be our peace when the Assyrians invade our land and march through our fortresses. We will raise against them seven shepherds, even eight commanders….

Have a blessed day.

Micah 3:9-10 Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness.

For years I have had a FitBit. It’s a watch, an alarm, a fitness tracker, a sleep tracker. I use it in all these capacities. Yesterday, the band broke, rendering it useless until I can get a new band. It made me angry, anxious, agitated. How am I going to tell the time, track my sleep or steps, set my alarm when school starts back? I worked myself onto a metaphorical ledge because of the value I placed on a FitBit. Jesus, Help me.

Micah 3:11a Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money.

What does any of this have to do with Micah 3? I put all that faith in a watch. They put their faith in the priests and prophets. Micah’s point here is that those priests and prophets are no longer relying on God, they are self-motivated, and it is going to lead them, all of them, to destruction if they don’t make a change, if they don’t wake up and see that they have placed their faith in man and not God.

Micah 3:11b Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.”

Lord, Thank You that You allow me to see how the mess in my own life is similar to the mess that people slog through in the Bible. Thank You for reminding me that You are my center, that nothing and no one else can or should take that place. Draw me closer to You always. Amen.

Micah 3:12 Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

Have a blessed day.

Micah 2:1 Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.

I have recently come to realize that I need acknowledgment in my life—Let me know you hear me, you see me, you understand me. Let me know you notice and appreciate the things that I do. When that realization dawned, I accepted it for the truth it is—not really a trait I love, but it is what it is—but today I sense that God’s whispering His truth to my heart concerning that trait.

Micah 2:2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud people of their homes, they rob them of their inheritance.

Commentary says that “Micah preached for anywhere between 16 and 25 years before there was any response.” Based on my need for acknowledgment, had that been me, I probably would have thrown in the towel long before I was able to do any good for God. While the need for acknowledgment isn’t in itself a bad thing, if it keeps me from fulfilling His work for me, there’s a big problem.

Micah 2:12 “I will surely gather all of you, Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people.

Lord, Thank You for Your word, for this realization about myself, and for the knowledge that it could become a problem if it keeps me from the tasks You have set before me. Help me to seek acknowledgment only from You. Help me to center myself on You alone. Amen.

Micah 2:13 The One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their King will pass through before them, the Lord at their head.”

Have a blessed day. I love you.

Micah 1:1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Lord, At this point in my life, in my motherhood and teaching journeys, I understand on an entirely different level the love, compassion, patience, and mercy inherent in these repeated warnings to try to get Your people to repent and return to You. Thank You for loving us so deeply despite our many, many flaws.

Micah 1:2 Hear, you peoples, all of you, listen, earth and all who live in it, that the Sovereign Lord may bear witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

Lord, We are flawed and broken. Nothing on this side of the veil will ever be perfect. Thank You for the glimpses that show they are listening, that they do hear, that it is making a difference. Know that that is true for me as well.

Micah 1:3 Look! The Lord is coming from his dwelling place; he comes down and treads on the heights of the earth.

Lord, Thank You that You don’t tire, that You don’t give up on us. Help us to lay our burdens at Your feet and clothe ourselves in Your strength as we continue to show love, compassion, patience, and mercy to all those You place in our paths. Amen.

Micah 1:4 The mountains melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.

Have a blessed day.