WHAT THE LORD REQUIRES

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?”

“To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Micah 6:8

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever wondered to yourself, “I wonder what the Lord wants me to do in life?”

Perhaps it’s a question we all should ponder and I believe the Lord wants us to do so. I say this because as we see in our final verse from Micah, Chapter 6, He speaks to us and tells us what He requires:

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?”

“To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  Micah 6:8

Maybe you were expecting some long oratory in response to the inquiry of what the Lord requires but as we see in His word here, He only gives us three primary expectations. They include:

1. We are to act justly.

Read the word of God enough and you’ll find out in a hurry that He despises people who exercise injustice in the way they live. Within the scriptures, we find Him calling out the wealthy for the way they were abusing the needy and the courts for the wicked way they executed or failed to execute justice. It’s obvious that the Lord desires for His people to live in an environment of fairness and equity. Anyone who chooses to behave unjustly can expect His correction and consequences.

2. We are to love mercy.

Everyone loves mercy when they get to receive it. It’s true, right? We all want mercy to be extended to us.

It’s another story many times when it comes to us giving mercy to someone else.

You see, the Lord does not expect mercy to be a one way street with His people only getting mercy and grace from Him. Rather, He wants us to take the mercy and grace we get from Him and give that same mercy and grace to others, just as He would want us to transfer His love to them. When we do that, when we see love and mercy as interlocked then perhaps it makes granting mercy easier because we do it in tandem with loving someone.

In other words, we show mercy because we love those we show mercy to. The Lord does it this way and He wants us to follow suit.

3. We are to walk humbly with our God.

What does it mean to relate to someone humbly?

Well, the definition of the word “humbly” tells us this:

“Expressing a spirit of deference or submission.”

Now let’s marry this up with the Lord’s requirement and substitute the definition for the word “humbly”. It would now read like this:

We are to walk with our God in a spirit of deference or submission.

In other words, we are to surrender to the Lord and yield to Him in every way as we walk with Him in life. When we do this, then it’s not our will that rules and reigns supreme in our life but His. We are deferring to Him in every way, doing what He wants us to do, saying the things He wants us to say, and thinking the thoughts He desires.

And when we truly do this, we won’t be able to help but act justly and love mercy because God is the perfect personification and representation of justice and mercy.

So if anyone asks you, “What does the Lord require?”, now you know what to tell them.

For the Lord tells us we are to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him.

It’s really as simple as that.

All we need to do is do it.  

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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