Followers of God are far from perfect. Micah–a prophet of God in the eighth century B.C.–made painfully clear that God’s people need pardon from iniquity, forgiveness for transgression, and deliverance from the righteous wrath of the LORD.
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
__ and passing over transgression
__ for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
__ because he delights in steadfast love.
He will again have compassion on us;
__ he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
__ into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18-19)
Followers of God are far from perfect.
And yet, they have found (restored) relationship with the LORD. They (and we) continue to inhabit a world groaning under the weight of sin. Enemies persist. Darkness falls. Doubts arise. But if the LORD has pardoned our iniquities, passed over our transgressions, and redeemed us as his own, we can walk with a victorious perspective, even on the darkest of days.
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
__ when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
__ the LORD will be a light to me. (Micah 7:8)
Gaze at and meditate upon that 2,700-year-old ray of God-breathed light.
- The most dreadful of enemies cannot rob me of my joy if my joy is firmly rooted in the LORD.
- My trips, stumbles, and falls will not ultimately define me if my rising is empowered by the LORD.
- The darkness–however terrifying and uncertain–cannot completely envelop me if my light is the LORD.
Not “if,” but “when.” When I stumble, when I sit in darkness, will I have been walking with the LORD? If so, I will have nothing to fear.