What does the Lord require of you?
Author: Scriptureaddicted
"What does the Lord require of you?
…to ACT JUSTLY, to LOVE MERCY and to WALK HUMBLY with your God."
Micah 6:8
The only thing I knew that could satisfy my goals and passion in my life is to please God. All I want to do is to glorify Him and exalt His name. I wanted to see His face smile upon me every time He would be staring at me. Every moment of my life, I wanted to bring honor to Him.
It would probably be very difficult to please God. It is actually impossible to satisfy Him through wrecked people like me.But He is so merciful and loving that He wanted us to be satisfied with Him. As we seek His face, we gradually discover the things that would please Him and according to the book of Micah, there are three things God requires of us. At first it may seem vague but in the long run, it'll fir our minds as we let the Holy Spirit habituate our soul and heart.
To Act Justly
How would we act justly? On what basis? On what regards to the law? With the first glimpse on this phrase, it just seemed to be simple instruction like do not sin or do not do evil.
Acting justly is not just in the mind or with the mouth. It requires actions, that is why God had said "to act". He didn't just said to think or to say justly. He mean to act and do it with willingness. Doing a certain thing without keenness steals the enchantment and joy of the circumstance. And we, as humans, tend to be willing when we have a purpose and we are eager to meet that purpose. And our purpose in acting justly is to please God and satisfy ourselves with Him alone.
How could our actions be just to the eyes of God? Scripture tells every detail of righteousness. We may not be able to do all the task we are obliged to do and love to do but rest assured, the Holy Spirit would not leave us hanging on to vague and complex situations in which we would falter because of the world's temptations. Learn by heart that as we abide in God, so as His words would abide in us.
As we ponder to the book of Job, chapter 35 verse 8 states that our righteousness would profit a Son of Man. It hit me as a powerful statement. As we pursue a life of righteousness, we are pursuing the Son of Man. As we live godly lives, we are drawing ourselves nearer to the Savior of mankind. Besides from the crown of righteousness that we would receive afterlife, we would possess the greatest gift of all -- the Lord Jesus Christ. He will be the one to help us in our daily struggle of living a life for the Lord. If we have the willingness to let Him live in us, He would be more than willing to live in us and carry us through any hardship.
To Love Mercy
The first thing that entered my mind when I read this phrase is being a martyr. I laughed at it. I just thought it would be very impossible for me to do that stupid thing.( As for me, it was stupid because it does not fit my personality.)But come to think of it, God wants us to do things that seem to be impossible on this earth so that we could rely on His power and that He may be the one we would acknowledge after our victory.
Some people would go appalled with the idea of loving mercy. It wasn't just giving mercy to the needy when necessary. Especially to those who does not need it.
As humans, we are so prone to planting grudge and lacking the attitude of forgiveness. But this is one way of being merciful. (Take note, we are not yet arriving with the idea of loving mercy.) But then, we felt like idiots when we easily give in and forgive our offender. We think they might repeat again the offenses that they have done against us if we let them think that we have already forgiven them. This is reality but reality never go together with the will of the Lord.
This is what loving mercy meant.
Imagine you have loved a person. Surely you would be thinking of that person most of your time. The very first thing that would come in your mind is the person you really loved. You would swallow your pride just for the sake of that person because you love him/her.
Loving mercy ought to mean like being immensely in loved with mercy. We are to think of it all the time, in every circumstance of our lives, in every person that we would meet each minute and in everything that would happen to us. Mercy should come first rather than our emotions. It should come first rather than our emotions. It should come first rather than our selfish desires and this would surely bring glory to our Father in heaven. We have received mercy from our God and we ought to give it to others what we have received freely from the death of Jesus Christ.
To Walk Humbly
This would complete martyrdom. After loving mercy, you walk humbly. Seems like a perfect scenery to replace GOMBURZA for being martyrs. But this is what the Lord had said. It's not like you have to walk with face fell down whenever you go out in public. In fact, we should become watchdogs toward this tendency of attitude.
True humility comes from the inside. It is a light that shines brightly in a big world even how little it may seem. This is what the Lord requires of us. To walk humbly.
There are a lot of misconceptions of being humble. People tend to think that humility is putting yourself down until you already look terribly pitiful. This is not what the Lord wants. We are God' children and we are to present our selves as one approved. We should be proud of being a Christian and this implies that we are never to deny God.
But, with humility, we are to bear in mind that in everything that we do, we are to lift up the name of the Lord. When we excel, we excel not for our own gratification but to lift God's name higher. Learn by heart, that as we walk the walk, we are not alone in our walking. God is behind us. Walk before Him and be blameless.
This three is what the Lord requires of us as we live on this sinful world. Remember that as Christians, we were send by God as lambs in the midst of wolves. Beware. There are a lot of wolves in this earth but the Word of the Lord is sufficient to every instruction on how to be able to conquer these wolves. Remember David, who has a bigger God than Goliath, was not just able to conquer a mighty person but was brave enough to face the giant that would lift the name of His God. Fight the good fight, finish the race and keep the faith!
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