Daily Devotion for August 29, 2014
Prayers
Scripture
Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Prayer to Change to Better Serve God
Holy God, I believe that you will change people and many things, if asked and if it is your will. Change me Lord, if it is your will, for I would lead a better life. Touch me, I pray, great God whose touch transforms. Reach out your mighty hand to me, and to all who seek you in the name of your Son. Heal us, transform us, and make us whole; reach out your mighty hand to lift us up to serve you; touch me and all of us this very day, O Lord, that our own hands may bring your hope and healing to this broken world.
For Strength and Peace
O Thou who art my quietness, my deep repose,
My rest from strife of tongues, my holy hill,
Fair is Thy pavilion, where I hold me still.
Back let them fall from me, my clamorous foes,
Confusions multiplied;
From crowding things of sense I flee, in Thee I hide.
Until this tyranny be overpast,
Thy hand will hold me fast;
What though the tumult of the storm increase,
Grant to Thy servant strength, O Lord, and bless with peace.
Meditation
[Let me show my love for You by my every action.]
Benediction
And finally, may the grace of Christ our Savior, and the Father's boundless love, with the Holy Spirit's favor, rest upon me, and all of us, from above. Thus may we abide in union, with each other and the Lord, and possess, in sweet communion, joys which earth cannot afford.
Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.
Proverbs 12:7 (ESV)
The wicked are overthrown and are no more,
But the house of the righteous will stand.
Micah 1-4 (ESV) (excerpts)
Woe to those who devise wickedness
and work evil on their beds!
They covet fields and seize them,
and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
a man and his inheritance.
Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight.
Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
its priests teach for a price;
its prophets practice divination for money;
yet they lean on the Lord and say,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
No disaster shall come upon us.”
Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height.
Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you shall go out from the city
and dwell in the open country;
you shall go to Babylon.
Notes on the Scripture
Israel after Solomon (24): Micah’s Prophecies of Destruction
Micah is the most “complete” prophet in the Old Testament, even though his book is only seven chapters and he is thus grouped with the Minor Prophets. He lived through the fall of the Northern Kingdom and continued to prophesy until the reign of Hezekiah; he was primarily a contemporary of Isaiah. (See chart.) But his prophecies, although short, were powerfully prophetic. Micah is also remarkably comprehensive; it at least touches on every major point of Old Testament prophecy.
He bewails mistreatment of the poor, corruption in government, hypocrisy in the priesthood, and idolatry, in both Israel and Judah; and he predicts both the destruction of Samaria by the Assyrians and the eventual fall of Jerusalem, and specifically the transportation of Jews to Babylon. This last prophecy is remarkable, for Babylon was a minor player at the time and the Babylonian Captivity was 150 years in the future.
But the strongest theme of Micah for Christians, like that of his contemporary Isaiah, was his theme of eventual redemption and peace, and the coming of a messiah, which we will read tomorrow.
