Episode 45: Micah 7:11
Transcription
Today’s verse is Micah 7:11
The day for building your walls will come,
the day for extending your boundaries.
Let’s pray together.
LORD, I think most of us long for a day like this. We spend our lives searching for opportunities for improvement. We look at it as finally accomplishing a dream, achieving a milestone, or conquering a dilemma. Nothing in this life fully satisfies and, even if we have enough, we still want more. Yet so many of us don’t have enough. So many of us are stifled, hungry, sick, in danger, impoverished, put down, scared, angry, or wounded. Some of us are all of these things.
Israel was like this, in misery and fearful. They did not know whom to trust. Many terrible things are described that happened to them. It could definitely cause me to doubt and to wonder why You allowed these things, even if they deserved them. But there is hope as well as agony described in these chapters. There is a turn where You ride in as the hero on a white horse and You change their fortunes. And they were to wait in hope for it.
Today, I sit in a waiting period. And I confess I am not good at waiting. I want an ending, one where all the issues are resolved and the conflicts solved. More than that, I want an action plan, with all the different steps detailed and outlined and triple-checked for error. I want to be sure that something is happening. I want to see it working. I want to see it working for me, in a way that I can understand. I think I’m not alone in that.
Yet that’s not how You work, Jesus. You work according to Your schedule, Your plan, Your timing, Your means. And it’s very frustrating to not be able to see it. And maybe sometimes that’s the point, that You’ve promised to take care of me and I need to be content waiting for that promise to come to fulfillment. I need to have faith that You are who You say You are. You are God and You are capable and You are mighty. You always keep Your promises.
And maybe sometimes I just can’t see what You’re doing because I’m not looking. I’m too focused on what I want and what I think is right. So I ignore how You’re working or I twist events to be the signs I am looking for. Help me to see You, God. Help me to see Your truth, not my desires. I pray that I am humble and I am open. Please direct my sight to Your plan and then soften my heart to receive what I may not always want. Help me to trust it will always be my best.
And I know that there will always be pain and sorrow in this world. The devil is working, humanity is fallen, and my own selfish ways are evidence enough of the brokenness in the world. I am sad because of that and it can tend to spread despair over my outlook. I think that promised day will never come. But instead of sitting in the dark, Jesus, lift me up into the light. Help me to be Your hands and feet in this world, to look outward inside of inward. Perhaps I am an instrument being used to bring someone else’s promised day. Perhaps I am supposed to contribute to helping heal the world. Perhaps looking out for others keeps my hope alive because I can see what You’re doing better and I stop being so focused on waiting for my own promises to be fulfilled.
When they are fulfilled, Jesus, help me to be grateful, and help me to be steady, and help me to be excited. Help me to work hard and build those walls and extend those boundaries. I want to live this life so fully, so strongly, and reap those benefits richly. We are partners, You and I, reaching toward an end goal of union between us. Help me to do my part because I can’t do it on my own. But I want to be engaged about my Father’s business. I want to understand what help I can bring and the inner satisfaction that will bring.
We are always in the waiting as long as we live. But we don’t have to be idle while we wait. Jesus, I pray for clarity of heart and strength of will and patience of soul. We are Yours, help us to surrender fully. And deliver the promises to us. We ask for You to spread abroad all the blessings of Your kingdom on us. Not because we deserve them, but because we want to use them for Your glory. We are grateful that You love us enough to count us as Your children and have such a wonderful inheritance for us. Help us to believe in the covenant You’ve made with us and to endure to serve You within it.
For all of us waiting, for all of us in despair, for all of us unsure of our destiny, bring us Your Holy Spirit, and bring us the day we are looking for. Bring us You.
I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
