Waist Deep 2018 - July 31


Micah 6: 8 He has showed you, O man, 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. (NIV)


You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth.*


In this verse, Micah is addressing people who have been going through the motions of religion. They were offering extravagant sacrifices but weren’t leading lives of obedience – like people today who attend church and tithe while they also cheat - on their income taxes, on their wives, at their jobs. Instead of being valuable, their offerings had become “odious to God.”*

So what does God want from them – and from us? What is good, Micah says, is to act justly. But that’s not enough. We must also love mercy – which speaks to a whole other level of commitment. Justice may be carried out in the absence of emotional involvement, but loving mercy produces justice without regret, resentment, or coercion. Walking with God involves action – obedience – but to walk humbly with him requires us to examine ourselves so that we conform our thoughts to his.

Perhaps this verse is less a list of actions and more a “trio of attitudes.”* If we make an effort to put on these attitudes, we will begin to establish a lifestyle that is pleasing to God.


True spirituality isn’t achieved through keeping a rigid formula.*


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