Friday after the Festival of the Ascension of our Lord

Scripture: Micah 7:7-13 (NKJV)

7:7 Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me.

8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness.

10 Then she who is my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will see her; Now she will be trampled down like mud in the streets.

11 In the day when your walls are to be built, in that day the decree shall go far and wide.

12 In that day they shall come to you from Assyria and the fortified cities, from the fortress to the River, from sea to sea, and mountain to mountain.

13 Yet the land shall be desolate because of those who dwell in it, and for the fruit of their deeds.

Devotion

“I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness.”

The anger of God is more helpful than the anger of men. God is merciful and His anger is short-lived. He disciplines those He loves so that they learn to trust in Him, but He does not bring down the fullness of His anger against them. When He has finished testing them with hardship, He honors them and makes them examples of His mercy and grace. Not so with men. It is man’s sinful nature to love violence. For this reason King David, when faced with the consequences of his own disobedience, pleads, “Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man” (1 Chron. 21:13).

Therefore, we should fear and obey God, rather than men. When we sin, God is merciful and will forgive our sins through faith in Christ, and He is powerful enough to deliver us from the anger of men. But, if we put our trust in men rather than God, men will not save us, nor will they remain faithful. It is better to trust in God than in men.

We pray: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe Thine only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into the heavens, so may we also in heart and mind thither ascend and with Him continually dwell; who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.