Do Right, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly

The prophet Micah asked, “With what shall I come before the Lord…Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings…with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for…the sin of my soul?” (vv. 6-7 NIV). Do you feel like you can never be good enough to please God? Does religion look to you like a set of impossible, guilt-inducing demands designed to appease a distant deity who takes delight in making us squirm? Thank God for Micah, who came along and dispelled that notion by telling us, “He has showed you, O man, what is good” (v. 8 RSV). Because you’ve been redeemed and filled with God’s Spirit, you can: (1) Do right even when nobody else is. Why? In order to maintain your confidence before God! (See 1 John 3:21-22.) Nothing in your life is more important than that. (2) Love mercy. The old Nancy Sinatra hit song comes to mind: “These boots were made for walkin’, and that’s just what they’ll do. One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.” Jesus went through life lifting people up, not walking all over them. And His Word to you is this: “Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:37). (3) Walk humbly with your God. When God promotes you, your greatest challenge will be to make sure He gets all the glory. Every good thing you have today is a gift from Him; try to remember that! So the word for you today is this: “Do right…love mercy…walk humbly.”