Malachi: Keep watch!
Devotions this week based on The Prophets Week 12 – Malachi (WATCH HERE)
This coming weekend we shift our focus to the Advent season and preparing our hearts for Christmas. Amidst the business of parties, shopping, and baking the season is intended to focus our hearts and minds on the coming of Jesus in the manger of Bethlehem and keep our 21st century hearts focused on the second coming of Jesus as well.
As Malachi ends not only his prophecy, but also the end of the inspired Old Testament, the Spirit of God uses the opportunity to point the reader and hearer forward.
4 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name,the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. 3 Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
The Lord would not give up on his people.
His love for them and the desire for their hearts to trust and follow him was unrelenting.
The Lord had been orchestrating his plan to bring salvation to the world through his Son Jesus and his Word would remain silent for about 450 years until John the Baptist came to announce the arrival of the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Jesus affirmed John was the fulfillment in Matthew 11
11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence,[d] and violent people have been raiding it. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.
The final word is one of judgment and promise. Judgment awaits those that walk away from the Lord. Promise is found in the same reality that Jesus is the answer to sin and the solution to stand right before God in heaven.
The fire of God’s judgment would fall on him on the cross and the joy of salvation would be ours as a gift of grace.
Look forward to Christmas…look forward to Christ’s return! Let your hearts be filled with repentance and joy!
Apply: How is God preparing my heart for Christ’s coming — both in worship and in His return?
What would change if I lived every day as His treasured possession?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, Prepare my heart to welcome You daily. Keep me faithful in Your Word and eager for Your return. Thank You for claiming me as Your treasured possession. Amen.
Malachi: Give Thanks from a Heart of Trust!
Devotions this week based on The Prophets Week 12 – Malachi (WATCH HERE)
Happy Thanksgiving to all our devotion readers! I pray that today is a day that is both one that is filled with many reasons to give thanks as well as one that leads you to respond with a spirit of gratitude, generosity and giving.
Malachi gently turns our eyes towards this latter thought: what we return. In Malachi’s day, the Lord spoke strong words to His people not to shame them, but to restore their trust. The people had returned from exile, rebuilt their city, and resumed worship but their hearts had grown cautious. They held back from generosity not because they were greedy but because they were afraid. Life had been hard. Resources felt limited. The future felt uncertain.
And then the Lord said something startling: “Test me in this.”
It is one of the few places in Scripture where God invites His people to put Him to the test. Not in arrogance. Not in doubt. But in trust.
“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and offerings… Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse… Test me in this… and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it” Malachi 3:8-10.
This is about faith. God was exposing a heart problem before addressing a money problem. When trust in God weakens, thankfulness disappears and as a result generosity disappears. When fear grows, giving shrinks. When people stop believing that God is good and faithful, they cling tightly to whatever they have.
And does that not still describe us?
We thank God for food on the table but worry we might not have enough tomorrow.
We thank God for health but live anxious about what might change.
We thank God for provision but hold our hands closed when He asks us to give.
Thanksgiving becomes easier when life is full. Trust becomes harder when life feels thin.
Yet God does not scold His people and walk away. He invites them closer. As we looked at yesterday, he says, “Return to me, and I will return to you.” And then He adds this astonishing promise: trust Me and watch what I do.
God does not promise wealth. He promises sufficiency. He does not promise ease. He promises blessing. He does not promise accumulation. He promises care.
Listen again to His words of grace:
“I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit… Then all the nations will call you blessed” Malachi 3:11–12.
God wants His people to live not with clenched fists but with open hands. Not driven by fear but shaped by faith. Not hoarding blessings but reflecting them.
Thanksgiving, then, is not simply listing what we have. It is trusting the One who provides.
The One who provides you your Savior, is the one who provides for your life. The One who provides you grace is the one who provides for daily sustenance.
Thanksgiving flows most richly from remembering the cross. There we see the generosity of God in full measure. There we see the love that does not withhold. There we learn that we can trust His heart even when we do not understand His ways.
So as you give thanks today, let it be more than a moment. Let it be a spirit. Let it be a lifestyle. Let it be an offering. Let your life of thanksgiving be a life that is grounded in trust…trust in the Lord!
Prayer: Gracious Father, You are faithful in all things. You have never failed us and You never will. Forgive us for the times we cling to what we have instead of trusting You for what we need. Teach our hearts to give not out of fear but out of faith. Teach us to thank You not only for what we see but for what You promise. We place our lives, our homes, our futures in Your hands again today. And we trust You. Amen.
Malchi: How Shall We Return?
Devotions this week based on The Prophets Week 12 – Malachi (WATCH HERE)
Malachi 3:6–7 “Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’”
It’s hard to make a U-turn when you don’t realize you need to make one.
On occasion the voice on my maps says, “Make a U-turn” and I ignore it. I think I might know a better way, or just don’t believe making a U-turn is the best for my travel plans.
How much more a spiritual U-turn when you don’t realize you need to make a U-turn.
Malachi speaks the Word of the Lord to the people of Judah, “Return to me,…”
When these words come from the all-knowing Lord who knows the thoughts of our mind and attitude of our hearts, it comes from a credible source.
We are headed the wrong direction.
The heart condition of God’s people was drifting once again from the Lord. They were hearts that thought they were doing the right thing…for them. They didn’t realize the priority of their hearts had drifted from the Lord to the things of this world.
This can happen in our life.
Work gets busy and the Lord gets little time. Life produces challenges and the Lord is not seen as part of the solution…perhaps even the problem. The attitude that life with the Lord can be done in the future is overshadowed by a life absent from the Lord in the present.
So the words of the Lord through Malachi are needed today as well: “Return to me.”
Stop. Evaluate the direction you are headed and return with all your heart, soul and mind to the Lord.
“…and I will return to you.”
It is a natural thing for the Lord to draw near to those who draw near to him. Like magnets that are aligned come together, so is the Lord and a heart that is aligned to him.
But you ask, “How are we to return?”
Unfortunately the people’s response isn’t, “Ok, Lord. You are right. We are getting rid of the things that cause our heart to drift and walking fully with you.”
The question “How are we to return?” seems like a stall tactic from a group of people who are not really asking “HOW” but perhaps implied is “HOW COME.”
Admitting their hearts had drifted was hampered by the pride that doesn’t want to recognize it would mean giving up love of wealth, selfish ambitions, and personal priorities.
To be sure, this is one of the greatest promises in the prophet: God does not change — which means He remains merciful. God is MORE THAN ready and willing to welcome the sinner back into his fold. Repentance leads us back to the Lord.It is a gift God gives to draw us back. It is His grace possessing our hearts again. Through Christ, the Father already stands with open arms, like the father in Luke 15.
“How do we return?”
Look to Christ. Trust again. Give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to align your heart again.
Repentance always leads home.
Reflection: Where do I need to return to God today? What burdens am I carrying that Christ already paid for?
Prayer: Faithful God, Thank You that Your love does not change. Turn my heart from sin and draw me near again to Christ. Amen.
Malachi: How have we defiled you?
Devotions this week based on The Prophets Week 12 – Malachi (WATCH HERE)
Let me begin with this thought.
I trust that every gift that individuals have offered to the church has been well meaning and well intentioned.
However, sometimes, honestly, the “church” becomes a step just before the trash pile to receive “gifts” of things that people aren’t using anymore AND have expired their usable lifespan. Usually the item is a result of cleaning out the basement or a new one has been purchased and the old one gets donated.
Malachi challenges the potential mindset of offering God (through his church) our leftovers, the things that aren’t the best, passed their usable timeframe, and really need to be thrown out. The Lord challenges our hearts again to consider, “Am I giving God my best or my leftovers?” “Am I giving God sacrificially or selfishly?” “Am I giving God what reflects what he has given to me or simply what is convenient for me?” Here’s how Malachi confronts “Junk for Jesus.”
6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD Almighty. “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.
“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’
7 “You place defiled food on my altar.
“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’
“By saying that the LORD’s table is contemptible. 8 When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty.
If we wouldn’t offer it to the governor of our state, perhaps we should consider if we should be offering it to the Lord.
Lord forgive us for offering less than our best to you. Forgive us for worship that is empty, routine rather than in heart-felt reverence.
The Lord through Malachi reminds us that worship is not payment to God. But worship reveals what our heart treasures most.
The Lord loves us enough to penetrate our heart with this message. In love, he calls us back to him and focus on his goodness and grace and encourages our hearts to reflect the same.
He gave us his best to cover the times we fail to give our best. Christ has given us His perfect offering. He is the Lamb without blemish. Because He has given His best which covers all our sin. The result of Christ’s work? The Spirit moves us to respond with joyful excellence, with grateful generosity, with giving our best not our leftovers. This is simply what the Gospel of grace moves us to do. We don’t have to give to earn love. Love has already been given.
Reflection: What are the “leftovers” I sometimes offer to God? How can I give Him my first and best in worship, in my offerings and daily living?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, Your sacrifice is perfect. Teach me to honor You in how I serve, give, pray, and love. Make my worship a joyful response to Your grace. Amen.
Malachi: How have you loved us?
Devotions this week based on The Prophets Week 12 – Malachi (WATCH HERE)
I enjoy the game of basketball and over the last few years have gotten back into officiating the game. I’ve learned a lot and realize that your perspective may not always be the same as the players, coaches, or fans…but you are the one charged with making a call when a violation or foul has occurred. Most are obvious and there is little complaint. However, sometimes a person fouls without even realizing it (or appears they don’t!). When you call the foul they can be heard to ask, “Who me? How?” with a puzzled look on their face.
Sometimes we don’t realize when we’ve created a violation…but someone does.
The oracle that God gives to Malachi is the spiritual official of the LORD calling out the violations of the people of God. Their response seven times is, “How?” What they were doing was deviating from the path of the LORD, but being done with a level of willful ignorance.
God sends Malachi to them and to us to call it out…not because he is vengeful, but because he loves us enough to not let us continue down that path.
The first call is this:
Malachi 1:2 — “I have loved you,” says the Lord.
But you ask, “How have you loved us?”
The shock isn’t the Lord’s statement, but the people’s response: “How have You loved us?”
How could someone not recognize the love of the Lord? The Lord responds. “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” the LORD says. “Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.” (Malachi 1:2-3)
The evidence of the Lord’s love was his faithfulness not just to Jacob, but all of his descendents. The people hearing Malachi for the first time were part of that. The Lord had preserved them, watched over them, been faithful to his covenant promises, and more.
But the people failed to see it.
Life was still hard. Enemies still threatened. Prosperity was not rampant.
The people seem to have set their “qualifiers” on what God’s love looked like. And when their qualifiers were not seen, they had concluded, “God doesn’t love us.”
Have you ever done the same? We may not say this out loud, but we feel it in our complaints:
If God loved me, why is life hard?
If God cared, why doesn’t He fix things?
God’s answer reminds us that His love is not the outcome of human merit or some bargaining power, but the result of his grace. He loved Jacob, not because Jacob was good but because He is gracious. He loves us, not because we are good, but because of his grace.
God’s love is real not based on our external circumstances and whether we find them pleasant or not, but on the objective life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Throughout Scripture, God’s love is seen most deeply not in comfort, but in rescue.
In Christ, that love is fully revealed:
“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5
The cross is God’s irrefutable declaration:
“I have loved you.”
The opening of Malachi calls us to repent of how quickly we forget and how easily we question God’s heart. God’s statement of his love for us sets the tone for the other calls he makes later in the book. He does all things, even calling out sin, because he loves us.
The God who speaks in Malachi speaks the same today:
“I have loved you” … look to Christ.
Apply: Where has God shown His love to you? What helps you remember instead of doubt?
Prayer: Lord, forgive my forgetfulness. When my heart questions Your love, fix my eyes on Jesus. Restore a thankful spirit in me through the cross and empty tomb. Amen.