Sunday Scripture

 Time for another Sunday Scripture!  As previously mentioned, I'm using the Daily Grace Co. book Fix Your Focus, which is really not a Bible study as such, but more of a guide to help you fix your focus on God, His Word, prayer, gratitude, and spiritual growth, every week for 52 weeks.  I encourage you to follow along with us as we journal, look at Scripture, pray, and face the challenges of our weeks with our focus on Him.  I truly hope that others are finding this as helpful as I am.

This week's lesson was actually done by me the week of September 22,  but I am working ahead of you readers.  So here goes!

🌿 WEEK-AT-A-GLANCE CHECKLIST is further on in each week's section. But since I am working on Fix Your Focus all week long, I find it works best for me to do this checklist first. This checklist offers us four points:  

* To make a plan for reading our Bibles and praying.

* To add any upcoming events to our calendars.

* To jot down a to-do list of tasks that must be completed this week.

* To make a note of our top three priorities for this week.

This last point is one that I need to pay special attention to every week.  I've been finding it so helpful.  (The other three points are things that I'm consistently doing.) 

For this week, my top three priorities are:

1) Rest -- Ladies of Grace meeting on Saturday will feel restorative; get to bed early each night we are at home.

2) Homemaking -- change to fall decor; declutter flat surfaces; Zone 3 tasks; work on computer room.

3) Ministry -- SS lesson prep and teaching, preparing testimony for Ladies of Grace meeting; tea and discipleship on Wednesday; blogging; work at volunteer job; .

[If you are following along with our study, this is the place to make a Week-at-a-Glance checklist and/or priority list for yourself!]

🌿 The first actual prompt for each week is JOURNAL.  We are encouraged to take a few minutes to our fears, joys, worries, desires and stressors concerning the week ahead.  [If you are following along with us, take a moment in a journal or notebook to do just that.]. Here's what I wrote on Monday, breaking it down into the suggested categories:

Fears: No real fears going into this week, although the recent martyrdom of a conservative Christian leader could give us pause.   

Joys:  Our Ladies of Grace meeting will be a joy.  Our little weekly tea party with friends is always a joy.  Ministry at TWNE is a joy,  I find joy in homemaking when I'm able to take time to do it.

Worries: I could have a lot of worries about life right now, but Jesus commands us not to worry, so I am trying to leave it all with Him.  

Desires: That God will be glorified in every aspect of this week.  That I can pull together a testimony that will be a blessing at the LOG meeting.  That I could get a good start on a 7-day home reset.  

Stressors: Time constraints, and just the simple fact that everything we do takes longer as we age.  It's hard to get used to that, but it is a fact of life.

🌿 The next prompt is PRAYER. It was suggested that we use several prayer prompts to have a conversation with God about the week ahead.  [You can do the same.  Use the very same prompts for your own prayer.]

* Lord, You are ... so kind and so good to give me so many opportunities to serve You and to minister to others.  You are in full control of each detail of  what needs to happen this week, You are able to give me strength and energy for what needs to be done.

* Lord, I feel ... a bit overwhelmed by the busyness of life.

* Lord, help me with ... the things that need to happen this week.  Help me with wise use of time and planning what needs to be done and when, and with my interactions with my husband and others..  

* Lord, forgive me for ... times when my attitude is bad or I allow my emotions to get the better of me.

Make a note of four or five people you are praying for.  I listed  a young mom and her kids in a heartrending situation, a friend coping with severe pain, and another young mom who needs encouragement.

🌿 The next section in this helpful guide is SCRIPTURE MEDITATION.  I chose to first meditate on this week's Scripture, Micah 6:8, using the SOAP method, and then answered several suggested questions.   [You can use your own preferred method to meditate on this verse, and answer the questions below for yourself.]

S= "He hath shown thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LorD require of thee, but do do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8)

O=  The ESV reads, "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Scofield titles this section "what the LORD requires of man".

The Daily Walk Bible gives us a picture of what is happening in Micah 6:1-5 -- "Micah's prophecy closes with a courtroom scene.  God has a controversy with His people, and He calls the mountains and hills together to sit in judgment on the case.  The people have replaced wholehearted worship with halfhearted ritual.  They have divorced God's righteous standards from their daily business transactions in order to justify their greed and corruption.  In short, they have failed to understand what God requires of His covenant people."

So Micah reminds them:  God has shown them what is good.  What does the LORD require of His people?

🍁 To do justly
🍁 To love mercy
🍁 To walk humbly with their God.

"He has told [or shown] is the Hebrew nagad - נָגַד which means "to tell, report, make known or declare something, to make it conspicuous. "To speak information for any purpose, used in such contexts as a message, a verdict, a warning, etc." (Swanson). The basic idea was “to place a matter high, conspicuous before a person."

Cross-references for "shown thee" "And now, O Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul."  (Deuteronomy 10:12)

"And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."  (1 Samuel 15:22)

"For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."  (Hosea 6:6)

"Therefore, turn thou to thy God; keep mercy and justice, and wait on thy God continually."  (Hosea 12:6)

In the phrase "what doth the LORD require", "require" is the Hebrew darash - דָּרַשׁ which means to seek with care, to inquire, to require, to investigate, to examine, to study. The participial form of the verb suggests this is an ongoing expectation on God’s part.

So what does the LORD seek diligently for?  He will describe three things (to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with Him), but all of them emanate from a heart that is humble and in right relationship to God -- this is what He diligently seeks for in His people.

Cross-references for "to do justly" -- "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD to do righteousness and justice; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which He has spoken of him."  (Genesis 18:19))

"Learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow."  (Isaiah 1:17) 

 The word "mercy" is elsewhere translated "kindness".  It is the Hebrew hesed which has the idea of faithful love in action. One writer explains, "It reflects the loyal love of Jehovah for His people, and speaks of relationship and covenant obligation. This noun is often used of God, and we do well to be imitators of Him. God's hesed denotes persistent and unconditional tenderness, kindness, and mercy, a relationship in which He seeks after man with love and mercy. How wonderful when our life begins to display just a "fraction" of this divine quality!"

A= To help with my application of this verse, I answered the three questions from Fix your Focus:

* Reflect on what this verse tells you about who God is.

He is the Ruler of the universe and He has a standard for how He desires for His people to live.  He has shown man what is good and what He requires of him.

* Think about what this verse tells you about who you are.

I'm someone who needs to be shown by the Lord what is good and what He requires of me.  I can't know this on my own, nor can I obey it on my own.  I'm in need of God's help in all areas.

* Throughout the week, consider how this verse should affect the way you live.

 I should live in obedience to the light God shows me.  I should do justly in all my actions and interactions.  I should love mercy and show kindness.  I should walk humbly with my God, remembering that He hates pride of any kind.

"Verse 8 describes what God requires; to obey this a person must have divine life. An unconverted person is totally incapable of producing this kind of righteousness." -- William MacDonald

 Warren Wiersbe explains, "None of us can do what God requires until first we come to God as broken sinners who need to be saved. Unsaved people who think they are doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God are only fooling themselves, no matter how moral their lives may be. 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us' (Titus 3:5)." 

"Humility must be in the heart, and then it will come out spontaneously as the outflow of life in every act that a man performs.... True humility is thinking rightly of thyself, not meanly. When you have found out what you really are, you will be humble, for you are nothing to boast of. To be humble will make you safe. To be humble will make you happy. To be humble will make music in your heart when you go to bed. To be humble here will make you wake up in the likeness of your Master by-and-by.” -- Charles Spurgeon

P= "Lord, I'm so thankful that You tell us exactly how You want Your people to live.  There is no way I could ever know this without Your clear instructions to Your people in Your Word.  I thank and praise You for drawing me to Yourself and for helping me to read and understand Your Word, the Bible.

    "I pray that You will help me every day to live in the ways that please You.  Help me to do justly, to love mercy and kindness, and to walk humbly with You, remembering that You resist the proud and give grace to the humble.  I thank You for how You will help me to do these things,  in Jesus' name, Amen."

🌿 GRATITUDE is the next prompt.  We were to reflect on the way God has shown His faithfulness to you over the past week and list five things we are thankful for.  [If you are following along with us, be sure to make your own list of five things!]. Here is my list:

1) The opportunity to enjoy dessert and a time of catching up with our neighbors on the Monday night .

2) The blessings of a wonderful day with friends: breakfast out, the Cannon Mountain Tramway, and hiking at The Basin, all on Tuesday.

3) Strength and wisdom for looking after our family's house and animals while they vacationed.

4) Tea and discipleship on Wednesday; breakfast out with another couple on Thursday.

5) An excellent time with wonderful fellowship and teaching at a ladies' retreat on Friday and Saturday.

🌿 SPIRITUAL GROWTH is the next prompt, and this week there's an emphasis on REST.  We were to make a plan to intentionally rest this week.  [And again, if you are following along, please think about this for yourself.]

Our plan for rest: to get to bed early each night that we are home. To spend several hours at our camp on Sunday afternoon. 

🌿 Lastly is a GOSPEL-CENTERED AFFIRMATION: 

It is good to act justly, love faithfulness, and walk humbly with my God.

We can take this instructive, challenging thought into the coming week as we seek to live the Christian life as God would have us to.

And there's the Sunday Scripture for this week!