The Everyday Prayer

RE Verse reading–Micah 6:1-8 (day three)  “He has showed you, O man, 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”  (vs 8)  With apologies to Jim Collins, it is not greatness that God requires of us.  It is goodness.  They are not the same thing.  Not wealth, fame, status, or power.  Something more humble.  Something more human.  The word humble comes from the Latin word humus.  It means “earth or dirt”.  Much of our anxiety leaves when we realize that we were made from dirt and will return to it eventually.  The Lord does not expect more from us than we are capable (in fellowship with Him) of achieving.  Humility reminds us of our need for God.  To walk humbly with God is His plan for us and leads to acting justly and loving mercy.  Such a life, from God’s perspective, is very good.

RE Verse reading–Micah 6:1-8 (day two)  “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?  Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings?”  (vs 6)  Worship for the ancients was inseparable from gift giving.  No person would think to appear before a King (much less God) without a gift.  Think of the wise men who, “fell to the ground and worshiped Him. . .and presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh”  (Matthew 2:11)  “With what shall I come before the Lord?”  asked the people of Judah in Micah’s day?  Good question.  The problem was their answer.  They imagined that God was only (or mainly) concerned with “church things”.  If there was a problem with God what would satisfy Him would be more “church things”.  It fell to Micah to set this straight.  What God wants from us is not something we can give Him at church.  It is a certain kind of life.

RE Verse reading–Micah 6:1-8 (day one)  “He has showed you, O man, 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”  (Micah 6:8)  Sunday, we will recognize the High School graduating class of 2012.  It will be a celebration for 22 FBC Seniors and their families and their church family.  To qualify, these students must have taken and completed the required classes.  What does God require of us?  (Hebrew–darash, “to seek”)  For what does He search for evidence we have completed His course of study? When He looks over the transcript of our lives, for what does He look? Requirement is an unbending word. There is no gospel here–only Law.  Surely the God of the Universe is not less demanding than a school board.  He has told us what is required.  Now we must ask,  “how can I live a life that meets these demands?”

RE Verse reading–Micah 1:1-6, 2:1-3, 3:1-8 (day seven)  “Woe to those who plan iniquity. . .I am planning disaster against this people”  (2:1,3)  Wrath is different than anger.  More deliberate.  Wrath is God’s intentional, intelligent, eternal opposition to sin.  It is God’s determined commitment to restore the world to holiness, whatever the cost.  Micah expresses this truth in a shocking way.  He says that when men plan evil, God plans disaster.  It is both bad news and good.  Even in judgement, God is careful.  He is fair and measured.  His plan leaves a way of escape for people who turn back to Him. (see the Ninevites in Jonah)  His plan wounds but offers a path of healing.  As strange as it sounds, even in His wrath, we trust Him, draw near to Him.  The dark side of a familiar truth (“I know the plans I have for you”–Jeremiah 29:11), a planning God encourages us to fear Him and make plans that He will bless.

RE Verse reading–Micah 1:1-6, 2:1-3, 3:1-8 (day six)  “Then they will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer them. . .they will cover their faces because there is no answer from God”  (3:4, 7)  Micah predicts a day when people will cry out to God and not get an answer.  God will stop speaking.  Perhaps this is where the world (and even many in the church) are today.  Unless and until we are willing to deal honestly and humbly with Him, further talk is useless.  He resists the proud. (James 4:6)  Christ is the “Stone which the builders rejected”  (Matthew 21:42)  “In the beginning was the Word”.  (John 1:1)  Until we are willing to hear what God is saying to us through Christ, what more is there to say?   “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets. . .in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.”  (Hebrews 1:1-2)  God is still willing to speak.  We must be willing to listen.

RE Verse reading–Micah 1:1-6, 2:1-3, 3:1-8 (day five)  “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord. . .to declare to Jacob his transgression.”  (vs 3:8)  I did not expect it.  Hard assignments from God.  People that have to be loved,  situations that have to be endured, decisions that have to be patiently prayed through–for the glory of God and the good of others.  I should have known.  Micah spoke of God’s power filling his life, not for some exciting, enjoyable purpose, but to declare to Jacob his transgression. NOT a popular path!  Paul (who also had his share of difficulty) spoke of being “strengthened with all power. . .for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience”  (Colossians 1:11)  The highest purpose of God’s power is to make me patient?  Hmmmmm. . . If I never accept a hard assignment, never promise to do it with patience and without complaint, will I ever know (or even need to) the power of God?

RE Verse reading–Micah 1:1-6, 2:1-3, 3:1-8 (day four)  “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord”  (3:8)  As Micah observes the people of Judah at the close of the 8th Century BC, he marks a dramatic contrast between himself and others.  They are ashamed and confused (vs 7).  He is filled with power and the Spirit of the Lord.  They are overwhelmed by life.  He sees clearly the path ahead.  This is not spiritual pride.  It is an honest report of the life that the Holy Spirit sponsors in those He fills.  While people of Judah were praying and not receiving answers (vs 4), Micah was experiencing the Answer of God for our human frailty.  ” I will ask the Father, and He will give you Another Comforter, that He may be with you forever”  (John 14:16)  May the Lord help us realize, like Micah, that the Spirit is God’s answer to our prayers.  He is what we need.

RE Verse reading–Micah 1:1-6, 2:1-3, 3:1-8 (day three)  “They will cry out to the Lord, but He will not answer them”  (3:4)  It is a terrible story.  I Samuel tells it.  After years of warning, years of patient grace, the Lord stops answering Saul.  “When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets”  (1 Samuel 28:6)  We understand the wisdom of God.  At some point, God must ACT in judgement.  More talking does no good.  Until we can be honest with ourselves, and with Him, there is nothing more to say.  Micah sees the same moment on the horizon for Judah.  It is a great mercy for the Lord to warn us against such a moment.  “Seek the Lord while He may be found” says Isaiah. (vs 55:6)  May the Lord use His word to give urgency and priority to the things of the Spirit.  While there is opportunity, we should act!

RE Verse reading–Micah 1:1-6, 2:1-3, 3:1-8 (day two)  “Then they will cry out to the Lord, but He will not answer them.  At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done”  (3:4)  It is a situation that the Bible describes with great fear.  God hides His face from us and our prayers.  At some terrible moment, He stops hearing us.  Until we are ready to deal with our sin, the conversation is over.  Isaiah saw the same moment.  “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear”  (Isaiah 59:2)  The lesson?  None of us should take the privilege of prayer for granted.  “Seek for the Lord while He may be found, call on Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. . .and (the Lord) will abundantly pardon”  (Isaiah 55:6-7)

RE Verse reading–Micah 1:1-6, 2:1-3, 3:1-8 (day one)  “The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth. . .the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.” (1:1)  Tradition has Micah (the 4th prophet in this fascinating series) as a man from a rural area with sensitivity to the sins of the cities of his day.  Perhaps we should be sensitive too–not just to sins but to the influence and opportunity that cities have.  Missiologists point to the deliberate focus of time and attention that Paul gave to the major cities of the Roman empire.  Jesus seemed especially concerned that Jerusalem rejected His message.  ( Luke 13:34)  As citizens of the 7th largest city in America ( arguably much larger in influence) we should be very aware of this focus.  In the Revelation, Jesus sends letters to the “angels” or pastors of city churches.  As we read Micah this week, may the Lord give us eyes to see San Antonio.  Ears to hear His message.