“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 (NIV)
As Christians, we often tout the Bible as God’s handbook on life, but all too often find ourselves at a loss as to where the sections that show us how to live are. All throughout the Old Testament, God’s people relied on the Law (the first five books of the Bible, also known as Torah) to know how God wanted them to live. This was a great gift from God to show them how he intended them to be holy people and to show them that they did not measure up to God’s standards for holiness.
The problem, however, was that they often got caught up in the intricate details and ignored the true priorities that God had for their lives. They thought that the most important thing to do was to make sure that their sacrifices at the temple were done properly and they also made sure that they stuck as close to the purity laws as possible. Their priorities were not in line with God’s.
In this passage, the prophet Micah reminds the Israelites that God’s priorities for life were not sacrifices, but acting with justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God. Today, we continue to live in a world that is full of injustice, short on mercy, and even shorter on people walking humbly with God! Sadly, we fail to see these qualities in our government leaders, in our Church, and in ourselves.
Take some time today and this week to reevaluate the priorities of your life and see if they mesh with God’s priorities for maintaining justice, mercy, and humility. When we live our lives in this way, our lives will be that living sacrifice that is pleasing to the God who sent his son, Jesus, into the world to be the justifying sacrifice for our sins so that we too can be full of justice, mercy, and humility!
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