“You mortals, the Lord has told you what is good.
This is what the Lord requires from you:
to do what is right,
to love mercy,
and to live humbly with your God.”
Micah 6:8 GW
I don’t know about you, but I think I hear a little frustration in this short message to us. We mortals have a lot of issues concerning how to “do life” on this planet, don’t we? We love to make things so complicated…to try to understand all the details and implications as they will impact our lives. We are our #1 concern, after all!
I almost chuckle as I read these key points that God gives us through His Prophet Micah.
“You mortals…” Reminding us of who we really are…finite, tied to this earth, made from “dust”, having a beginning and an end in regard to this earth. We are not God, though we tend to think that we are when it comes to who’s in control of our lives….
“…the Lord has told you what is good.” God has told us in so many ways….through His Word, through His Spirit’s presence in our lives, through nature itself, and through the words of those who have gone before us, are currently with us. . . people who have experienced God and are much further down the road than we.
Here comes the simple, basic reminder of what we should already know:
- “Do what is right.” Actions….my actions….whether toward another person, or towards no one at all… simply making choices, dwelling on thoughts, holding attitudes, or making decisions that perhaps no one at all will know about. This focuses on the internal thoughts that lead to actions.
- “Love Mercy.” Mercy is not dependent on being deserving, nor earning, nor “rights.” Mercy chooses to do good to another, whether known, seen or deserved. Mercy is a heart condition. Mercy holds my hand back from doing what may be deserved…what might be justified in the opinions of others. Mercy bypasses reason and logic, and comes from ones very heart in situations we face that, in the natural unfolding of events would result in a natural suffering of another. Mercy chooses to withhold the “judgement” or natural consequences, and instead offer kindness, forgiveness, softness.
- “Live humbly with your God.” When we put God in His rightful place in our lives, we can take a step back from putting ourselves in what should be His rightful place in our attitudes, thoughts, and actions. It’s remembering Who He Is, and who I am.
The perfect “3-Point Sermon”….keeping it simple, open-ended for personal applications, and easy to remember. These are not points that are focused on the “me.” It’s all for “the other.”
God knows all too well who He’s dealing with!
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