What's Next?

I am at the blog first thing this morning, because I woke up with a Scripture verse on my mind. I have been enjoying these last few, quiet, precious mornings in my favorite spot in my sun-filled loft upstairs in our house with my Bible and my journal and my coffee. I'm going to miss this. I'm going to miss a lot of things. And that is why I am meditating on this verse this morning.

Micah 6:8 - "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

There are a lot of verses that I might expect the Lord to bring to my mind with all that is going on in our lives right now. This wasn't really one that I would've thought of. But it is really speaking to me.

"He has shown you what is good"  He has shown us what is good - His will for us. His will is always good, because He is good. After much searching and pleading with the Lord for His will to be shown to us, and submitting to whatever His plan might be, He has answered by giving my husband a job. It is a secular job, in a field that is new to him. God has answered by leading us to a place to live. We are downsizing to an apartment that is less than half the size of our house. That does not translate to "inexpensive." Which means I will be soon be looking for a job myself.

These are huge changes. They are not forever - at least, right now we don't expect them to be. After much prayer we came to the conclusion that we need a year to get our bearings and discern what the Lord tells us is the next thing for us. But right now, this is the next thing.

So now that He has shown us what is His good will, what does He require of us?

1. To do justly. Just to obey and to do the next right thing. Even though it might be new and scary and hard.

2. To love mercy, or kindness. One of the sweet benefits of this dark time we have been walking through is more time together as a couple. We have been doing a devotional study on love, and one of the characteristics of love according to 1 Cor. 13 is kindness, so we make an extra effort to show kindness to each other. And when you are under a lot of stress and having to make a lot of decisions like we are, that is sometimes the hardest time to remember to be kind.

3. To walk humbly with our God. That's easy right now. When you don't have the answers and you don't have the resources, you have to rely on God. And that's a good thing. We can't do any of this without Him. We are depending on Him for everything. Every single thing in my life is changing right now, and I don't like change. (I will probably be blogging about that in a future post.) The best thing we can do right now is acknowledge our dependence on the Lord, and walk closely with Him.

Hoping you will do these things too.

Love,
Kathi