He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8
When life gets challenging and things change quickly, we can find ourselves getting disoriented if we are not careful. When everything we considered as normal gets upturned, as things have been this past year, we may lose sight of what is important as we scramble to adjust to new conditions. I am so thankful for God’s eternal Word, the Bible, and His unchanging ways toward us. He has always looked for His people to simply trust in Him and do what is right, believing that He is in control and will reward the faithful. Micah wrote this scripture around 750 years before the time of Christ in a very challenging time in the nations of Israel and Judah. Although they had been experiencing some financial prosperity, trouble was brewing on the horizon as Assyria was becoming a world power that would soon be invading the land of God’s covenant people. No matter what our circumstances may be, God is always looking for us to respond to Him as the above text states: we are to do justice, love others in kindness and to be humble in all we do. This may sound right and seem easy to do, but it is not. We have the world, the flesh and the devil all working against us in living this out. We must not just “feel” these are good things, but we must “do” them. First of all, we must act in justice fairly towards all people. This means no favoritism and no partiality for any reason. We are to treat all people rightly as we would want to be treated regardless of skin color, ethnicity, culture, social status or any other factor. Everyone we encounter is to receive from us fair treatment and opportunity. Any sphere of influence we have, we are to do what is right. We cannot have only feelings, we must take action. This takes faith in God that He will help us as we try to do what honors Him. Next, we have to love and embrace kindness. We live in an ever less compassionate world for sure. Although people talk about kindness and respect, that usually means only if you agree 100% with them, otherwise you get their wrath! The text above is speaking about kindness to all, not just those you agree with. If we want to see others come to faith in Jesus Christ, they must see the love and kindness of the Lord in us to believe our message. Romans 2:4 tells us that “it is the kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentance”. We need to be as careful and tender with others as we would want to be treated ourselves. Everyone we meet is battling something we likely know nothing about, and we need to find out how to help and heal people, not condemn them. Finally, we are to walk humbly with our God. This means we trust in Him to change others. There are many people who are acting like tyrants right now. A tyrant insists you submit to their thinking, values and ways or else you face their anger. A mature Christian knows only God can change hearts and minds and we are to trust in Him to do that work while we focus on loving Him and others and practice justice/fairness and kindness/compassion. No matter what the future holds for each of us, we can be sure that we will stay in God’s will if we have Jesus as our Savior, the Word of God and Spirit of God as our guide, and we practice these qualities. Blessings!
Love in Christ,
Pastor Gary Houdek