Day 66
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Much like in my "Life with Autism" lately, in these readings it is more the same in battles and destruction. But as always, God brings a bright spot. I just hope upon Hopeism though that one day I can get to the bright spots without going through the other stuff first.
In Obadiah God is giving the invaders a taste of their own medicine. As they have destroyed the innocent, so will God destroy them. In the Lent season I'm in as I write this, oh how I hope that comes true one day for the vaccine industry. For those who have destroyed our children's health and who make our difficult lives much more difficult. I have so many people and situations in my mind as I type this, it saddens me. Innocent children, innocent parents, being invaded by evil men, evil institutions, evil policies. I can do nothing but cling to the passages where God gives them their due. The innocent are avenged.
Obadiah 1:4 says to the invaders, to the evildoers: "Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down," declares the Lord."
Obadiah 1:15 goes on to say, "The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head."
I don't think I should live my life counting on God to destroy every evildoer I come across, but it is sure comforting to be reminded that God is a just God. He can deliver justice. He did. He does. And He will.
In Jonah God continue his message of judgement. And in doing so, he uses a man I can relate to. Jonah. When I know what the right thing to do is, sometimes I just want to run the opposite direction and not do it. It's hard to keep doing the right thing when everything else is wrong. It would be so easy to just give up. When I know I should be praying, I find myself complaining instead. God understands that. This book is about how God gives second chance to those who take even the tiniest steps in the right direction. Sometimes mine are crawls in the right direction. God doesn't care. He'll take that. And I'm so thankful. Compassion and Grace is not what God gives me because I deserve it, I don't. It's what he gives because of those baby steps or crawls toward him. I'm even more thankful for that. Because like Jonah, in the belly of a big fish is where I sometimes deserve to be.
When God told Jonah to go one way, he went the opposite. And ended up in the belly of a big fish where he prayed this prayer:
Jonah 2:1
"In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, in to the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, 'I have been banished from you sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.' The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God."
I've been feeling like that lately. This guppy swallowed up inside a big fish. I am trying to be faithful in prayer, in HOPEISM, and I am wanting so very much for God to bring me up out of that pit and on to the shore of healing for one son, hopes, purposes, potential fulfilled for the other, a season of rejoicing for Team Guppy.
My Bible companion summed up Micah nicely with these truths:
* God is against those who plan evil.
* God is a righteous judge.
* God will rule forever.
* God expects us to right the wrongs in our own behavior towards others.
* God forgives.
Micah 6:8 says, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
I'm comforted by that. So often I think I need to save the autism community from all it's injustices, and even on a good day, it's an impossible task. Let alone trying to do that among the many bad days "Life with Autism" throws at me. It's comforting to know that God is against those who plan evil. God is a righteous judge. God will rule. God doesn't expect me to save the world, just to do a better job at righting what I can in my own corner of the world.
Micah 7:7, "But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me."
And what better verse for me to have read today during this season of Lent as I sit here sick with a cold and defeated by more seizures Brandon is having to endure while he is sick too.....
Micah 7:8, "Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light."
My Lord will rise again.
My HOPEISM will shine even brighter.
The enemy will be defeated.
HOOYAH
&
HALLELUJAH
