This year I got a
late start on our family Christmas card. Then, when it arrived, the last two
lines of text were cut off. Joe spent a few hours figuring out the font, downloading
it to his computer and printing the missing lines onto the back of each card! So,
a belated Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year from the Reas (Joe,
Alice, James (13), Sarah (11), Edmund and Alexis (9)).
What spiritual goals are you and
I prayerfully planning to accomplish, with the help of the Holy Spirit?
I stumbled upon this familiar verse when I was studying the book of Micah this past week:
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.
In context, it isn’t quite so glamorous!
Micah 6:6-9 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?
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?
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.
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.
God, through Micah, had painted a dark future for Israel because of their consistent wickedness and rebellion against God. If they thought they could “pay” for their wickedness with thousands of sacrifices, that wasn’t going to work. God had given them clear instructions about how to live a life pleasing to Him. I think this is saying that now, they were to accept the consequences (“rod”) and learn from them. God’s greatest desire is for them to walk humbly in relationship with Him!
As you and I set goals for 2023, instead of asking ourselves what we want to do or how we want to serve God, let’s ask God!
Even if we are dealing with consequences
for past sins, He can help us accept and learn from those consequences. He
knows how best to move forward. Five goals God has for us just from this
passage are to:
Instead of saying “Happy New Year!”
maybe a better greeting, from one Christian to another, is “Happy Humbly Hustling for Him this Year!” 😉
