Daughter (or Son) of God

Zephaniah 3:14-17 Sing, Daughter Zion;
    shout aloud, Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
    Daughter Jerusalem!
¹⁵ The Lord has taken away your punishment,
    he has turned back your enemy.
The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you;
    never again will you fear any harm.
¹⁶ On that day
    they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, Zion;
    do not let your hands hang limp.
¹⁷ The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Oh Lord, may we embrace who we are in Christ, may we accept how loved we really are.  Lord, as we pray, let us listen and hear You speak to us. Let us rejoice as we hear you call us Daughter or Son.  

How am I complacent?

Zephaniah 1:12 (Living Translation)
"I will search with lanterns in Jerusalem's darkest corners to punish those who sit complacent in their sins. They think the LORD will do nothing to them, either good or bad."

Dear Lord, take a lantern to my heart.  Look in it's dark corners and show me where I am complacent that I may turn from my sin to you.  Like a good parent, You do not want to see me suffer the consequences of my poor choices.  You want me to choose Your way.  I choose Your Will over mine, I choose to be open to Your discipline. Give me Your Wisdom to see the hardness of my heart. Fill me with the Holy Spirit this day. Amen

Seek His Face

Nahum 1:7-8
The Lord is good,
    a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him,
⁸     but with an overwhelming flood
he will make an end of Nineveh;
    he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.

Nahum was a minor prophet who spoke of the destruction of Nineveh.  A country that only 150 years before God saved by the preaching on Jonah.  Reading of this destruction of Nineveh, I wondered about America. In 1630, a governor named John Winthrop admonished the future Massachusetts Bay colonists that their new community would be a "city upon a hill", watched by the world. America founded on The Bible and it beliefs guiding us became a great nation.  

Will America be the Nineveh of Jonah and repent and follow God or the Nineveh of Nahum and turn from Him and be destroyed.  

II Chronicles 7:14   "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."   

His Love

Micah 7:18-20
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.
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.
²⁰ You will be faithful to Jacob,
    and show love to Abraham,
as you pledged on oath to our ancestors
    in days long ago.

May each of us be wrapped in His Love this day and we may we show it to others.   

Love Kindness

Micah 6:8

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with Your God. 

What more needs to be said?  We read the entire Bible and here are some astounding words.

Love kindness....people will see Jesus when we love and show kindness.
Dear Jesus, let every interaction in my life show kindness.

He will be our Peace

Micah 5:2-5
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clans^[b] 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.”

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.

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.

⁵ And he will be our peace

God has been helping me to understand His Peace.  His Peace is regardless of the situation.  His Peace is from within and not from our external circumstances.  His Peace is when we yoke ourselves with Him, not running ahead of Him, not lagging behind Him, but walking beside Him.  "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."  Matthew 11:29

Dear Lord Jesus.  Help me to understand and the have Your Wisdom and live in Your Peace and in Your Rest.  Let me walk beside you as Your child. 

Walk in the Name of the Lord

It has been too long on my diet of summer of Psalms.  I needed a change and found it in Micah.  Lord, so many things going on in our world today. Teach me to WALK in YOUR NAME!  Let me LOVE each person in YOUR LOVE.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.  

The Mountain of the Lord

4 In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
    as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
    and peoples will stream to it.

² Many nations will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
    so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
    the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
³ He will judge between many peoples
    and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
    nor will they train for war anymore.
⁴ Everyone will sit under their own vine
    and under their own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
    for the Lord Almighty has spoken.
⁵ All the nations may walk
    in the name of their gods,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord
    our God for ever and ever.