The Faithful Remnant

PRAYER PRACTICE

Prayer Journal 

To begin your daily worship today, grab a pen and paper and write out a prayer to God. Not sure what to write? Try using ACTS to frame your prayer. Begin with adoration for who God is. Then move on to confession – being real about where you have fallen short in the last day or two. Give thanks to God for all that He gives (including forgiveness for the sin you just confessed!). And then finish with supplication – with your prayer requests to God. When you are done, tuck this away somewhere (so you can read it later and see how God has answered your prayers) and then move into hearing from God through His Word.

DAILY READING

Malachi 3:16-18

DEVOTION / REFLECTION

Remembering and Being Remembered

By Pastor Jeff Morlock

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the word “remember” is not always about recalling something that you’ve forgotten. Instead, to remember someone often means to take action on their behalf. By contrast, the theme of Malachi is, “Don’t forget the Lord!” In this context, to forget means to neglect God and fail to act in accord with his will. By and large, Israel had forgotten God’s love, God’s justice, God’s commandments. Only a remnant remembered and gave testimony to those around them by fearing God and honoring his name (v. 16).

Though we sometimes forget God, he never fails to remember us. God remembers, even those who are not seeking his help! In this passage the remnant are simply talking to one another, but the Lord listens and hears and takes action, not just for them, but for the sake of the entire world!

“They will be mine,” God says. At the cross, Jesus would buy us all back from the debt of our sins, paying the price for our iniquity. “With your blood,” the twenty-four elders sing in heaven, “you purchased people from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Martin Luther writes concerning the second article of the Apostle’s Creed, “He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, death, and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death” (Small Catechism).

That’s what Jesus has done for us all. This is how he made you and me his “treasured possession.” Because of Christ, you are holy. Because of Christ, you  belong to the faithful and remembered remnant who are his witnesses to the ends of the earth!

Prayer: Lord God, I praise you that you always remember your remnant people. Let me never forget to fear, love, and honor you, for the sake of your Son Jesus. Amen.