Praising Like God's Already Done It

 

Who is a God like you? Who forgives sin and pardons the rebellion of those who remain among his people? Who does not stay angry forever, but delights in showing loyal love?  Micah 7:18

 Today I consider Micah chapter 7. This chapter encompasses an interesting journey for Micah. It is one I share with him, and I think many others do too. We’ve heard of the stages of grief and probably experienced them ourselves. I think this is Micah’s version of these.

 In the beginning of chapter 7, Micah wallows in misery, both his and his country’s.

How miserable I am! I feel like the fruit picker after the harvest who can find nothing to eat. Not a cluster of grapes or a single early fig can be found to satisfy my hunger.  Micah 7:1 NLT

 Now Israel had been through some truly atrocious times. Things got so bad at one point people were literally eating their own children (Deuteronomy 28:53-57). Here Micah is complaining about a fig shortage. Realistically, though, this is figurative language saying that there is nothing left to eat. He goes on to share that people have become evil and self-centered, out for their own good only. They seek wealth over justice, they have no integrity, there is no one you can trust. It’s a pretty bad time. I wonder how many of us can identify with these feelings? Have you ever felt like the world has fallen to pieces around you? Like you cannot trust anyone? Like the very fabric of society is decaying? This is where Micah is at. And how does he respond? I love this verse…

But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.  Micah 7:7 NIV

 When everything around you is falling to pieces, when you don’t know what to do or where to go, when it seems like you don’t even know where your next meal is coming from, watch in hope for the LORD. This is not a, “So what are you going to do about this, God?” moment. This is watching in hope. Hope for what? Hope for God’s promises, for the things we can trust in absolutely, for God’s character. Micah had hope that God would hear him, that he wasn’t alone. Sometimes that’s the worst part of misery, that feeling like we are the only people in the world experiencing it. They say, “Misery loves company.” We love to know that there’s someone else out there that identifies with us. I have several health conditions, and some of the best therapy I’ve taken part in for them is joining Facebook groups with other people that share my experiences. Tossing memes back and forth. Ranting occasionally when we need to get things off our chest. Coming alongside each other and saying, “I hear you. You’re not alone.” Recently, I made a new friend in person. I mention this because it’s a banner moment in my life, an extreme rarity. I literally cannot remember the last time before this that I made a new friend that wasn’t through the internet. We’re talking decades. Even more exceptional than making a new friend, God brought a person into my life that shares my experience. She also has Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS). We met on a cruise, having come to the same place, to the same elevator bank, from different parts of the country. How often do you strike up a conversation with someone waiting for an elevator? I don’t know about you, but it’s pretty uncommon for me. Beyond that, how often do you continue that conversation for a month? That’s never happened to me before! Anna has been such a blessing to me. A light in a difficult time. A person who makes me feel seen and heard, and not alone. I believe she is a gift from God, a way that God has shown me that He sees me, He hears me, He knows what I need and is faithful to supply it, even in the most unlikely of ways!

 Micah didn’t have Facebook, and he probably wasn’t a popular guy, what with running around and telling people the country was going to hell in a handbasket and they were all a bunch of sinners. What he did have was all he needed though, he had God. He knew that God heard him, that he wasn’t alone. “God my Savior” wasn’t just a name of God to him, it was a truth he clung to. God would save him. When he needed to be saved, he looked to God. I love how Micah continues this chapter:

Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD's wrath, until he pleads my case and upholds my cause. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.  Micah 7:9 NIV

 This is not an “if” but a “when.” Micah says, “He will bring me out into the light” (emphasis mine). He goes on to write the rest of this chapter as if what God has promised has already happened, even though it hasn’t taken place yet. He believes God’s promises so intensely that, for him, the future is a foregone conclusion. He knows what will happen and he can be thankful for it in advance.

 How often do you praise God for what He will do? How often do you put so much trust in God’s promises that you can thank Him for having already begun the work to bring them about? I love the times in scripture where it shares that the answer to prayer began as soon as the prayer happened, but the person praying didn’t get to experience it immediately.

As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision:  [Daniel 9:23 NIV]

Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come."  [Daniel 10:12-14 NIV]

 God is at work even when we can’t see it, even when we don’t understand it. A lady in Bible study shared the following passage yesterday and it just hits with what I’m trying to express here:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  [Romans 8:22-28 NIV]

 It goes on from there and if you read the whole chapter you will be encouraged. “But hope that is seen is no hope at all.”  Isn’t this the truth? When Micah hopes though, it’s almost like he can see it! Oh that I could hope like this! That I could know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what God promised would come to pass!

Here’s the thing: Those moments when people want to pray for my healing… I dread those. I don’t want people to pray like that because I don’t want to “get my hopes up” that it will happen. I’ve felt for a long time like physical, earthly healing was not a part of God’s plan for me. It’s not that I believe that God can’t heal me, it’s that I think His path for me is different, maybe even better. But when people pray this way there’s a part of me that longs to believe it, that longs to experience it. Truly, though, this feels like false hope because it is not promised to me. His healing is, yes. He has promised to make me a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). And there is a time in the future promised that there will be no more pain, no more sorrow (Revelation 21:4). I absolutely believe in both of these things, but these are not yet a reality for me. Still, though, I can praise God for them as if they are – just like Micah did.