Topic: Truly, A Merciful Father [Tuesday June 7, 2016]
Text: Micah 6:6-9
Key Verse: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8).
The scene of a grieving father standing before his stubborn and wayward son and pleading with him to renounce his destructive lifestyle would touch any reasonable person. But the picture of the patient Almighty God serially wronged by His children, calling on nature to witness His people’s sin, is an overwhelming testimony to the bottomless mercy of God as against the extreme iniquity of man.
The children of Israel had behaved like the heathen, disrespecting God and His laws, thus provoking Him to anger. God had loved and pleased them at every turn. Instead of showing appreciation to Him, they were unthankful and forgetful. Their custom of addressing their sin by sacrificing to God was not acceptable. It was infuriating to Him. In our age, thousands of years after Prophet Micah, God’s standard has not changed. He has the same message for everyone today. He wants a regenerated heart from where love, justice, humility and mercy will flow. Our service to God is meaningless if we do not possess a soul that exhibits these virtues, which only a new life in Christ can create.
If there is no answer to our pleas to God for peace in the home, community and nation, then we must go back to God, the Author of peace and listen to what He says in Isaiah 59:1,2,4: “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”
Thought for the day: It is wisdom to be thankful and appreciative of God’s sprawling mercies.
Bible Reading in one Year: 2 Samuel 8-10
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
