Charles Stanley (September-18-2024) Daily Devotional: Waiting in Prayer.
If you don't know what to do, just be faithful where you are.
Micah 4:1-2 - And it will come about in the last days That the mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, And the peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, ``Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the house of the God of Jacob, That He may teach us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For from Zion will go forth the law, Even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Micah’s prophecy to the people of Judah sounded bleak: The nation had fallen into idolatry and other sins and as a result would face God’s judgment of suffering and exile. (See Micah 1-3.)
But in chapter 4, the book’s tone changes abruptly, and Micah is left with what we might call “waiting words”—a common feature in biblical prophecy. These are phrases that encourage Israel to be faithful even when hope seems lost. In the first verse of today’s passage, the waiting words are “It will come about,” sometimes translated as “It shall come to pass.” God asks Israel not merely to wait—but to wait in faith. How does Micah reconcile this hope with reality?
From that point on, the book takes on a more hopeful tone as God shows Micah what will come later: The Lord will restore and revive the nation, providing peace and healing. In addition, He promises the appearance of their Messiah, a shepherd-king who “will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the lord” (Micah 5:4 - And He will arise and shepherd His flock In the strength of the LORD, In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they will remain, Because at that time He will be great To the ends of the earth).
Micah’s words near the end of the book capture his prayerful posture: “I will be on the watch for the lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me” (Micah 7:7 - But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me). Watching for the Lord, looking to Him alone, and expecting Him to hear us is the right stance when things seem bleak.
