Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, 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 simplifies the Christian walk tons in my mind. I lead a Bible study for the girls in my church and I always worry that I'm going to say something or misinterpret something wrong for them and hinder their growth. At school I always freeze when there's a chance for me to say something about Christ, I'm worried that I'm going to say the wrong thing. People already have a bad impression of Christians and I don't want to make that worse. So nothing gets said and I walk away feeling like I just failed a test.
But this verse makes it easy: Do justice, love kindness, walk with God. Easy peasy, right?
Right... well.. I've found there's a lot more to this verse then meets the eye, but you can boil it down to about two points.
1) Walk with your God. You can do justice and love kindness all you want but if you don't know God (and there's a difference between knowing about God knowing God) and aren't walking with Him, in the end it isn't going to mean squat. If you don't know Christ personally you're going to die and be separated from Him forever. This isn't a small thing you can ignore, well, you can ignore it and/or reject it, but I urge you not to, there's simply too much at stake.
2) Walk humbly with your God. How important is humility?
Isaiah 6:1-2 says:
Thus says the LORD:
Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?
All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the LORD.
But this is to whom I will look:
He who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.
Woah! Heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool!
How tiny must I be? An eensy weensy speck of dust. If that. But if I am contrite and humble God is going to look at me. If humbleness draws God's attention like that we better be paying close attention as well!
So how do we accomplish this? How can we become humble?
Someone once said that "Whenever someone has been humbled he has been awakened to his sin"
Ohhhh.. that actually makes a lot of sense. If we are just "walking" (ahem, lying to ourselves) with God, blind to our sin and how He wants to work in our hearts we really aren't growing, and we won't unless we become humble.
If we can become humble then it will benefit our entire spiritual life. When we are attending church, a Bible study, or reading our Bible at home, we will not only be convicted of sin but encouraged and shown how God wants us to behave as His child. Humbleness brings you into a position under God where He will work miracles in your heart and draw you close to His. It's when growth happens, joy abounds, and doing justice and loving kindness comes naturally.
He has told you, O man, 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 simplifies the Christian walk tons in my mind. I lead a Bible study for the girls in my church and I always worry that I'm going to say something or misinterpret something wrong for them and hinder their growth. At school I always freeze when there's a chance for me to say something about Christ, I'm worried that I'm going to say the wrong thing. People already have a bad impression of Christians and I don't want to make that worse. So nothing gets said and I walk away feeling like I just failed a test.
But this verse makes it easy: Do justice, love kindness, walk with God. Easy peasy, right?
Right... well.. I've found there's a lot more to this verse then meets the eye, but you can boil it down to about two points.
1) Walk with your God. You can do justice and love kindness all you want but if you don't know God (and there's a difference between knowing about God knowing God) and aren't walking with Him, in the end it isn't going to mean squat. If you don't know Christ personally you're going to die and be separated from Him forever. This isn't a small thing you can ignore, well, you can ignore it and/or reject it, but I urge you not to, there's simply too much at stake.
2) Walk humbly with your God. How important is humility?
Isaiah 6:1-2 says:
Thus says the LORD:
Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?
All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the LORD.
But this is to whom I will look:
He who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.
Woah! Heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool!
How tiny must I be? An eensy weensy speck of dust. If that. But if I am contrite and humble God is going to look at me. If humbleness draws God's attention like that we better be paying close attention as well!
So how do we accomplish this? How can we become humble?
Someone once said that "Whenever someone has been humbled he has been awakened to his sin"
Ohhhh.. that actually makes a lot of sense. If we are just "walking" (ahem, lying to ourselves) with God, blind to our sin and how He wants to work in our hearts we really aren't growing, and we won't unless we become humble.
If we can become humble then it will benefit our entire spiritual life. When we are attending church, a Bible study, or reading our Bible at home, we will not only be convicted of sin but encouraged and shown how God wants us to behave as His child. Humbleness brings you into a position under God where He will work miracles in your heart and draw you close to His. It's when growth happens, joy abounds, and doing justice and loving kindness comes naturally.
