Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Devotion VIDEO here
No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8(NLT)
Among
the prayers listed for today’s reflection I found this one for our country:
Almighty God, who has given us this good land
for our heritage: We humbly beseech you that we may always prove ourselves a
people mindful of your favor and glad to do your will. Bless our land with
honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence,
discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way.
Defend our liberties, and fashion us into one united people. Endue with the spirit
of wisdom those to whom in your Name we entrust the authority of government,
that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to
your law, we may show forth your praise among the nations of the earth. In the
time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of
trouble, suffer not our trust in you to fail; all which we ask through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.[2]
There
is a long list of requests in that paragraph!
· Strength/will to do God’s will
·
Prosperity, wisdom, manners (manners? In 21st
century USA? Really?)
·
Protection from violence, discord, confusion,
pride and arrogance (guess we’ll have to
forego the 2016 election)
·
Justice and peace…thankfulness and vindication
of our way of life
It’s
not only a mouthful to speak; it’s quite a pocketful of miracles in a nutshell.
Years
ago a lady in our church was called upon to pray for the missionaries during
our midweek Bible Study and prayer time.
She took about a week to walk up to the microphone, heaved a great and
very dramatic sigh, then prayed….O, Lord, please bless all the dear
missionaries everywhere. Amen!
Well,
Russell, what’s your beef? She did it;
she prayed for those missionaries. Do
you think a longer prayer is somehow more holy?
If she added words would there be more blessings from above?
No…not
really; it’s just that we seem to take the easy way out of most stuff, prayer
included. After the mass-shooting in San
Bernardino last week, the criticisms flying around on social media for people
who had posted prayers for the victims raised the issue for me about how much
“feet” we actually add to our prayers.
Are those critics correct in saying our prayers don’t matter a whole lot
if we’re not willing to do something to cooperate with what God might do?
Micah’s
three-fold sermon on what God requires is about two-thirds internal commitment
(loving mercy and walking humbly with God), but that other part is hard: doing what is right! When there is scarcity of doing, we always fail
the loving and walking. And frankly, if
one support of a three-legged stool is broken, there will not be a safe place
to sit!
Our
prayers are important; if they were not, Paul would never have reminded us to
pray without ceasing.
But prayer
– even unceasing prayer – when there is a lack of action, is much less than our
best effort to serve God with excellence.
That kind of prayer probably does no more than bounce off the ceiling
and echo around the room until it fades away without so much as a whimper of a
half-blessing for all those missionaries…or shooting victims.
For You Today
Do
you have an opinion, an urging from God’s Spirit to do right?
What
difference will you make today?
Chew on that out on the
Rocky Road today…and have a great day!
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