The resources God has given us to live a thriving life are His Word, Spirit, and People.
Read God’s Word:
Malachi 1-4, Psalm 50
Act 2: God’s Covenant People
Scene 9: Return: God Delivers His People Again
Background Information: Malachi 1-4, Psalm 50
The exile has come and gone. The people, what is left of them, have returned to a much-diminished land and Temple. After all of that, what has changed? Nothing. Malachi’s six back and forth prophetic disputes between God and the people sound exactly like the pre-exilic prophets. The people are doing what they want, and God’s clear commands are ignored. Israel seems to have learned nothing in all they have gone through. So, in this last prophetic book, do we learn that essentially the Old Testament was a waste of time? That God’s long patience with Israel had accomplished nothing? Of course not. God has demonstrated his great patience, his righteous judgement, and his covenant commitment through it all. But he has no plan B, he only, always has a plan A. Plan B is for those who lack to the ability to accomplish their first choice. God lacks nothing in his power or wisdom; God only needs a plan A. Plan A for God was always the Lord Jesus, and his coming was foreknown before the foundation of the world.
“For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you.”1 Peter 1:20-21
Four hundred years after Malachi, John the Baptist will break the prophetic silence. John the Baptist will fulfill Malachi’s final prophecy and announce that the day of the Lord has come in the person of the Lord Jesus. He was the voice calling in the wilderness to prepare the way for the Lord. John in his humility would deny that he is a new Elijah, but Jesus would identify John as just that kind of prophet. In Jesus, all the law and the prophets were fully and finally fulfilled.
Pray:
Praise God for…
Thank God for…
Confess your sins to God
Pray for CAYM. Ask God to use Donnovan and the team be equip and establish effective mentoring programs that would care for the needs of youth at risk.
Ask God for… (what else concerns you?)
Reflect:
Write down one passage of scripture that stood out to you today.
Write down why this passage stood out to you.
Engage Community:
Text or call someone now and tell them…
– What you are praying for.
– What stood out from God’s word today.