Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work in us. Ephesians 3:20.

The Lord reigns; He is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed; He has put on strength as His belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting. Psalm 93:1-2 ESV.

I loved this from My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers: ““Out of the Wreck I rise” “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Romans 8:35. God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, “I will be with him in trouble” (Psalm 91:15). It doesn’t matter how real or intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate him from his relationship to God. “In all these things we are more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). Paul was not referring here to imaginary things, but to things that are dangerously real. And he said we are “super-victors” in the midst of them, not because of our own ingenuity, not because of our courage, but because none of them affects our essential relationship with God in Jesus Christ. I feel sorry for the Christian who doesn’t have something in the circumstances of his life that he wishes were not there. “Shall tribulation…?” Tribulation is never a grand, highly welcomed event; but whatever it may be – whether exhausting, irritating, or simply causing some weakness – it is not able to “separate us from the love of Christ.” Never allow tribulations or the “cares of this world” to separate you from remembering that God loves you (Matthew 13:22). “Shall…distress…?” Can God’s love continue to hold fast, even when everyone and everything around us seems to be saying that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice? “Shall…famine…?” Can we not only believe in the love of God but also be “more than conquerors,” even while we are being starved? Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver, having deceived even Paul, or else some extraordinary thing happens to someone who holds on to the love of God when the odds are totally against him. Logic is silenced in the face of each of these things which come against him. Only one thing can account for it – the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck I rise” every time.”

God’s Spirit brings joy to hearts parched and dying…and in His tender love they blossom with new life. How is that even possible? Because Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit IS…and He loves us, His created, deeply. This final chapter of the book of Micah, Micah 7, speaks volumes about us and about Creator God. Micah and God lament…What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; they hunt each other with nets. Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire – they all conspire together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day God visits you has come, the day your watchmen sound the alarm. Now is the time of your confusion. Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with the woman who lies in your embrace guard the words of your lips. For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies are the members of his own household. But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. v. 1-7. With all of that above and all we see today, as in a mirror of what is in us, how can we or Micah claim that hope? Do not gloat over me, my enemy! (In the words from The Hunger Games…remember who the real enemy is!) Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. Because I have sinned against Him, I will bear the Lord’s wrath, until He pleads my case and upholds my cause. He will bring me out into the light; I will see His righteousness. Then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame, she who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will see her downfall; even now she will be trampled underfoot like mire in the streets….The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the result of their deeds…Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their power. v. 8-10, 13, 16. But…never forget…God’s love is for us…even as our own deeds work against us. Who is a God like You, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as You pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago. v. 18-20. What is tread underfoot? Our sins. What is hurled into the depths of the sea? All our iniquities. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light…He will bring me out into the light and I will see His righteousness. Hold fast because God’s love is for our good and He is our hope! Why do we think He created? So He could torment us? So He could gleefully send us to “hell”? Do we truly not know God at all? There is a reason He created and He would love to help you know Him. He would love to help you see His creation in a new light, the light of His abiding love for us. With Him helping us see in His light, we can walk safely in the darkness of this world of tribulation and flourish in His love. How? By repenting of all of our hate as we followed the real enemy’s ways; and by choosing to trust in Creator God’s love for us. Jesus didn’t come to utterly demolish the Roman Empire; it fell in the weight of its own sins as does every human empire. He came to show us the Father’s love – and to show us how to trust the Father for everything, just as Jesus, the Son, led faithfully by the Spirit, trusted Him. He came to show us what the Kingdom of God looks like and it is so Good!