We are strange creatures! Have you considered all the ways we try to appease our Higher Powers? A third of my lifetime ago I first went through a twelve step program and Step Two is ‘Believed in a Higher Power.’ It was curious that many created their own Higher Power who was what they wanted to serve themselves and not one they would serve. Unfortunately, too many come to the Bible with a conception of what God wants that is more mechanical than spiritual.
Today’s text begins with the things conceived of by many that will please God: coming before Him, bowing to Him, burnt offerings, giving our best production, even the giving up of relationals all to cover over our distancing from God. So many futile means none of which bring us back into agreement with God but give us the sense of making an effort, trying, wanting…
Then Micah gives us the Truth that God has told: do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with our God. Sounds so much simpler than the mechanics we create but there is a fundamental catch—each of the three come from agreement with the LORD, are those which must flow out of the spirit and soul rather than be mere physical acts. Justice is as defined by God as to what is right and not necessarily popular. Kindness, loving kindness, also flows from a heart after God and is selfless in loving God and expressing Him toward others in service and relationship. Then, the third element—walking humbly with our God—gives the LORD primacy in our life and then the submission that ‘walking humbly’ suggests. Do we really want to accept what God desires and practice that from the heart rather than be driven by our own desires?
How are we living out ‘walking humbly’ with the LORD today? Which part of our desires are we willing to lay down in submission to Him?