Who Is a God Like You?

I feel like I shouldn't admit this, being a preacher's wife and all, but there are times when I do not read my Bible the way I should. And what I mean by that is that I have weeks where I look at my turquoise, soft leather Bible sitting on the counter as I pass between doing dishes, accompanying 3 year olds to the bathroom, back to fix glasses of juice and back to fold laundry and back to fix the next meal. Get my drift? Seeing as how this last week was a record doozy in terms of my attitude I decided Friday morning that the 'tude I'd been sportin' needed to come to an end. And I have been a believer long enough to know that the only power I possess is the power I get from His Spirit and His Word.

I have always struggled with mornings and especially trying to be productive before 10am. But, it has become my routine to fix a bowl of oatmeal and some tea every morning and on this particular day as I sat at the table I spotted my lonely, abandoned Bible. It called to me. Reminded me that it held words that would give me wisdom, peace, direction, healing. I began to hear a small whisper telling me to read Micah. My thought? Seriously? Micah? Micah is one of the books of the prophets and focuses a great deal on God's wrath. I knew I had had a bad week and deserved God's wrath, but I found myself wanting to read anything else. And yet, I just couldn't. I was supposed to read Micah.

As I expected I read about God's people who had turned away from Him to worship other idols. His people who had forgotten who there God was. I know that I have never worshiped an idol in the way that people in those days worshipped wooden carvings or other gods. But I do know that there are plenty of things that I put ahead of my relationship with God. I began to get a lump in my throat as my heart became convicted of the many ways I had failed in the last week, not to mention the last month or year of my life. Is it hard for any of you to be human? Personally, it causes me some problems. Selfishness, pride, unforgiveness, laziness, impatience......the list could go on, but I don't know the word count for blogger.

Anyway, as my heart became tender and struggled through these things I moved into the last chapter of Micah and God rocked my world. I found these verses:

"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."

Micah 7:18-19

Who is a God like you? Oh my gracious! I left my Bible on the table all day open to those words. So often we find ourselves asking "How can God allow so much pain and suffering?" or "Where is God?" But the truth is, who is a God like Him? In the times of the Old Testament people worshipped gods that required crazy sacrifices and who were cruel characters that often played pranks on the people. Their gods were selfish and cared nothing about mortals. Can you imagine learning of the One, True God? A God who DELIGHTS in mercy?! A God who has compassion and hurls our sins into the depths of the sea!!

So many times it is easy to become overwhelmed and consumed by our everyday lives. Whether we are experiencing severe trials or just the routine of day to day life, it is easy to lose focus. To take our eyes off of the gift we have in a God who shows compassion and delights in mercy. A God who is patient. A God who sees our struggles with the sins of this human body and life and waits to trample them underfoot and hurl them into the sea. What a God we serve!