Confidence (Lesson 3 - Post 3)

Let's close Micah's third and final message.  Read Micah 7:8 - 20.

Remind yourself of the things we have learned from Micah's third message: 

• God is clear about what He expects from His people ...  (6:8)

                 * to behave justly
                 * to love mercy
                 * to live with humility before Him

• Regardless of the corruption and darkness in the culture around us ... we still are responsible for our own behaviors, thinking, and attitudes ... "But as for me" ... (7:7)

We come today to the third application point I want to emphasis.  And it is all about confidence - and hope - and security.  What a splendid way Micah closes this sermon!

Notice Micah 7:8  "Though I have fallen, I will rise.  Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light."

I keep pausing at the phrase, "though I have fallen, I will rise."  God's people continue to fall - our attempts to play with sin, with idolatry lead to the discipline of our holy God today as in the days of Micah.  But the confidence in this statement thrills me!  The 'falling' is not the end of the story.  It was not the end of the story for God's remnant preserved through the captivity by Babylon ... and it is not the end of the story for you or me. 

I am reminded of another writing by the German born writer and photographer, Ulrich Schaffer:

You might think

that I am breaking,

that I have fallen

and will not survive the storm,

but you are mistaken.

I am still growing.

I will not give up.

In desperation and hope

I will push down roots

into the hard ground.

You will see:  I will live.

I gave up form and style long ago.

Survival in the gaping wound of life

is the goal which nourishes me.

I wrestle from life

the days needed for my fulfillment,

and when I finally do fall,

because in the end everything is a falling,

it will be upward

into the hands

of the waiting one.

Anyone claiming to be without sin is fooling herself.  (1 John 1:8).  There will be "falling".  That we know.  That we have already experienced.  But the "falling" is not fatal!  At least it need not be. 

I will rise!

The Lord will be my light!

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you:  God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."  (1 John 1: 5, 7)

That's a promise.  Forgiveness ... cleanness ... purity.  All from our God - the God of Micah.  Just as Micah described in 7:18

         

Micah closed his last message wanting the people to see the hope and the coming restoration.  I love that!  And I want to close our reflection on this little book with a quote from Revelation ... full of the SAME hope and coming restoration.  Revelation 22: 3 - 5

May we have the confidence and the assurance of that promise ...



No longer will there be any curse.  The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  There will be no more night.  They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.  And they will reign for ever and ever.