Walk Boldly With Jesus

What Does The Lord Require of Us?

Episode Summary

Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” This episode talks about what the Lord requires of us and how we can them to him. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Episode Notes

What Does the Lord Require of Us?

Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

This verse came right after God was making a case against Israel.  He was telling them to remember all He had done for them and then they were asking how they should appear before the Lord.  Should they bring burnt offering, should they give him thousands of lambs or rivers of oil?  This is the reply they get back.  “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  I feel as though this is how we would all act.  We hear that God is angry with us and we want to know what we can do to fix it.  Our first thought would be similar to their first thought I bet.  We would try to give God something.  Have you ever heard the saying if you through enough money at a problem it will go away?  God is not like this.  There is not amount of money that you could give Him to get away with your sins.  God does not need anything that you have to give Him.  He doesn’t need anything.  

What God requires of us does not take any money.  It is not an object which we can buy with money either.  What God requires of us is more about who we are and how we live.  This is much harder.  Becoming someone different is difficult and not nearly as easy as buying something.  This is why that is our first go to solution.  We want the easy way out.  Who wants to take the hard way?  But guess what?  No one ever grows taking the easy way.  Your strength is forged in battle.  Your perseverance and resilience comes from being knocked down and then standing back up.   Think about the difference if you walked up the access road to the top of the mountain, or you scaled the cliffs to get to the top, which would give your muscles a better workout?  Which way would help you get stronger faster?  It is the same with life.

None of us enjoy the battles, none of us like taking the long way around and yet it is necessary to get you to be there person you want to be.  The person God wants you to be. God is calling you to a better life, a life you will love and be so glad once you get there.  And you will get there, just as the Israelites got to the promised land.  The question is how long is it going to take to get you there?  I heard Father Mike talking the other day and he said that it took the Israelites less than 2 weeks to get to the promised land.   Then they sent scouts up to look at the land and search out their strengths and weaknesses. Check out their food and the situation in the cities.  They were supposed to scout it out and report back.  Then God would lead them to their victory.  However, they reported back that they shouldn’t attack.  That the men of those lands were too big and too numerous.  The felt defeated before they even tried.  They turned their backs on God and did not think He could help them win.  For this, God punished them to walk the dessert for 40 more years.  Are you holding up your progress by doubting that God can help you?  Are you prolonging your suffering and taking the longer way because you don’t want to follow God’s ways?  

This verse is telling us what God is requiring of us.  “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  He is not requiring us to give Him lots of sacrifices each day.  He is not asking us for special oil.  He is not asking us for anything that we can buy. He is asking us to do justice.  I found several articles that discuss the verse and how to do what the Lord is requiring of us.  I will share some of the things I found in an article titled, How to Do Justice, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly with God by Jason Soroski.  (CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE)  According to Jason, “To do Justice means to know and seek the justice and righteousness of God in our own lives and in the world around us. It is important to note that we are to do justice. It is not just a thought, but something that we act upon, living out justice not just in what we say but in what we do.  He also says, “True Justice is living out the truth of Scripture, speaking truth to others. It is done in love and spoken through mercy and humility. God requires us to do justice not to place ourselves as superior to others, but to walk in love, sharing and living out the truth of the gospel.”

Next the verse says we should love kindness.  I wish more people in this world loved kindness.  I feel as though sometimes, when something happens in the world, like Covid, it really brings out peoples kindness.  At least at the beginning of it all we saw everyone wanting to help everyone.  Also when this war in Ukraine started.  I know there is a family in my town that took on a refuge family from Ukraine.  The community really came together to provide what was needed for that family.  However, there are so many other times when I just see people being unkind.  God is calling us not just to be kind, but to love kindness.  When we love something we want to share it with others.  God is calling us to share our kindness with others.  

The third thing the Lord is requiring of us is to walk humbly with your God.  In Philippians 2:3 it says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Rather, in humility value others about yourselves.  Jason Soroski says in his article that “We walk humbly with God when we acknowledge that He is just and that only through His mercy are we made whole. When we truly believe this, it flows out of our lives and into the lives of others. As with justice, humility is an action. We are to walk with Christ in humility, not running ahead, not standing still, Humility is perhaps one of the hardest things for us to show. We live in a world that glorifies the strongest, the smartest, and the best. Humility, therefore, runs counter to everything we are taught to hold meaning. Yet Jesus gives the exact opposite example. The apostle Paul reminds us in Philippians 2:7-8 that Jesus displayed the ultimate act of humility in that, “he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

Jason concludes, “These things are required of us because added together they keep our hearts balanced, focused, and centered on godly things. When we lean too far into any one of these things, we fall into a trap: justice without mercy leads to cruelty, mercy without justice leads to vulnerability, and humility without confidence in God’s justice and love for God’s mercy leads to fear and lack of self-worth. Yet when these three are in perfect biblical balance as laid out in Micah 6:8, we find ourselves becoming imitators of Christ, who was filled with grace and truth and placed the needs of others above His own.”  Let us all try to become imitators of Christ.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, please help us to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with you God.  Lord, if we don’t understand what this means, please give us an understanding of what you are calling us to do.  Help us seek out an understanding of what you require from us so we can give it to you.  Forgive us Lord, for wanting to take the easy way out.  Give us the strength to persevere through hard times.  Give us the wisdom to know when we are making things harder than they have to be.  Help us to know we are the reason things are taking so long, just as the Israelites were the reason they needed to wander for 40 years in the wilderness.  We love you Lord, you are truly amazing.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Tomorrow’s witness will be from my friend Emerald.  Emerald’s story is one many of us can relate to.  She fell away from the church and was not really sure what was true and what wasn’t.  She embarked on a journey of truth of herself.  Then when she felt called to go back to church, she struggled with feelings of worthiness and whether or not she would be accepted.  I think if we are honest with ourselves we will all see ourselves in some aspect of Emerald’s story.  I look forward to sharing that with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!