“And I said, hear you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know justice? You who hate the good and love the evil who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones?”
– Micah 3:1–2
What an indictment of the heads of Jacob and the rulers of the House of Israel. God says to these leaders, “I put you in charge of caring for my people, and you’ve done the opposite. You tear the skin from off my people, tear the flesh from off their bones”. What imagery of leaders who led in a way that they don’t benefit the people they lead. They only benefit themselves, and they have led to destruction among those who they are leading.
Micah 3:1–2 Teaches that the Lord Demands from Us Stewardship of Our Influence
I read this and I just immediately think about the people God has entrusted me to lead and to care for, as a husband, to think about my wife, as a dad, to think about my kids, as a pastor, to think about people in the church that I shepherd, and I just want to encourage you to think about people that you have a responsibility for leading and caring for in some way, maybe in an official title you have of leadership or maybe it’s unofficial, it’s just a picture of influence you have and others lives, and let’s pray.
God, help us to use, to steward the influence any leadership we have in others’ lives for their good. Lord, we pray, for the good of people we lead and any of the different ways we might lead them. God, we pray for the good of those we oversee in some way. God, for the good of anyone we have the opportunity to influence help us steward our influence for others’ good. Help us to love the good and hate evil.
Micah 3:1–2 Shows Us that God Desires to Minister to Others through Our Influence
God, we pray that the fruit of our influence would be others experiencing your goodness, grace, mercy, and kindness. We pray that people would flourish under our leadership, would flourish as a result of our influence. And even as we pray for this stewardship, we think about the opportunities we have with the gospel to spread it around the world, the opportunities we have to influence nations for your glory.
Praying for the Turkment People of Turkmenistan
God, we pray today for the Turkmen people of Turkmenistan, almost five million of them, and so few of them followers of Jesus, most of them having no knowledge of the gospel. God, please help us to steward your grace in our lives for the spread of the gospel to Turkmen people and people like them.And God, we pray specifically for this people group today that they would hear the good news of your grace and your love in Jesus. You would cause the gospel to spread among them, God, that they might know justice, that they might enjoy your goodness. All of this, God, we pray according to your word in Micah 3:1-2. In Jesus’ name, amen.