Verse of the Day - Micah 6:3-4

My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. ~ Micah 6:3-4 (NIV)

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(Please forgive a tired girl who just couldn't seem to crawl out of bed today. I've reprinted last year's VOTD from 10/21/07. If you remember reading it, sorry. I didn't remember writing it, which is rather comical, considering the text. God bless your day...)


My memory is getting pretty bad. Sometimes, the alarm goes off in the morning, and I stand there and stare at the clock, wondering why I set the alarm for 4:30am on a Sunday...and then I think, is it Sunday? Did I go to church already yesterday?...and the fog clears and I realize it's Monday! Or, I simply can't remember what I wore or ate just the day before! Mostly, it doesn't really matter, but the forgetting can drive me crazy!

What does matter is how quickly we can forget the goodness of the Lord. Israel had been delivered supernaturally from their bondage in Egypt. That was huge! They had cried out in their misery for 400+ years, completely unable to help themselves. And then God stepped in an acted...in a mighty way! And they were free. Unbelievable! But somehow they didn't make the connection between their freedom and their responsibility. They couldn't seem to grasp that they were consecrated as God's holy people, and with that position came accountability to Him to be a holy people. To be God-lovers and lovers of His ways. But how can you make someone love you? You can't. And that was the sorrow of God's heart and the agony of His grief.

If you have been set free from the bondage of sin by choosing Jesus, you are a walking miracle. Just like the Israelites, there was nothing you could do to get out of your sin shackles -- nothing. Only God could break your chains. And now that you're free, do you take your freedom for granted? Is your salvation just a ticket to heaven and fire insurance from hell? What is your response and your responsibility to God for the miraculous rescue He performed in your life?

Do you remember what your life was like before you became a believer...?

Purposelessness, wandering aimlessly . . .
Searching for happiness, but never finding it . . .
Feeling lost and alone in a sea of people . . .
Wanting love, but getting lust and left instead . . .

When God comes into a life and fills all those empty, lonely, hurting places in our hearts, we are amazed and thankful and joyful! But then time goes by, and life settles down, and we forget. But God never forgets. He never once forgets that He rescued us for two things: to be in a love relationship with Him, and for us to walk a new way and show others the new way, too. We were never rescued out of our desperate situation just to make us more comfortable on earth and give us a harp on a cloud when we die.

Here's a song prayer that pretty well sums up where our head and our heart need to be. I pray that you can give your life each day as a thankful love offering to the Lord for the spiritual freedom you have from Him...

Jesus, lover of my soul
Jesus, I will never let you go
You've take me from the miry clay
You set my feet upon the rock
And now I know...

I love you, I need you
Though my world may fall
I'll never let you go
My Savior, my closest Friend
I will worship you
Until the very end.
~ Jesus, Lover of my Soul, by Darlene Zschech

Love,
Joelene