End of year reflection: "How have you loved us?"

It's December 31, 2015. I am reading from the Book of Malachi and the people of God asked this question:
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ (Malachi 1:2)

I remember asking this question many times through the year. Maybe I didn't ask the question directly but I had chosen to let circumstances snuffed out God's reassuring words:
The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
    I have drawn you with unfailing kindness."
(Jeremiah 31:3)

The Lord further says in Malachi 1:2-3
“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

It shows that God is sovereign in His choice to who He loves. It's hard to swallow for the free-will thinkers. But I find this very reassuring.

Given this covenantal love, how then should I live, especially facing the new year 2016?

• In all that I do I must give God the honor and respect: “A son honors his father, and a slave 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. (Malachi 1:6)
• If I offer any sacrifices (in my work, my leisure, my relationships) I must do so with integrity without showing contempt to God's kingdom and His rule: When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame 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. (Malachi 1:8)
• Because if I show contempt to the Lord's love, He will shut the door on me and open it up to deserving people everywhere (this is where God's sovereignty and men's free-will meet - both can be seen in God's Word!): I will accept no offering from your hands. My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty. (Malachi 1:10b-11)
• I must remember to always offer God the best. There will be curses rather than blessings when I "cheat" Him: “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations. (Malachi 1:14)
• No matter how bad I have fallen God's sovereign offer remains true: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (Psalm 103:8) and “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed... Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty... Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house... 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. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,...Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty. (Malachi 3:6-12)
• There will be a day when His purpose will be accomplished - He had indeed accomplished it (partially) by sending His One and Only Son Jesus to this world (fulfilled as Elijah in this verse) and final judgement is yet to come in the future: “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 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.” (Malachi 4:5-6)

The promise of the Day coming is repeated in the final book of the Bible:
Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.(Revelation 22:12-15,21)

I am excited about the new year. I live with anticipation to see what God will do in my life and the lives of the people I meet. I longed to see His love manifested in my life that others will be blessed through me. This is an exciting year as I look forward to retirement - not to stop working altogether, but to spend more time to do the things that I like, things that God has uniquely blessed me to do. Hallelujah!!!