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Weekly Devotional

July 14, 2008
 

Micah 6:6-8  ⁶ "With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  ⁷ Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"  ⁸ He has told you, O mortal, 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?

What does God require of you?  Are you to go to church every week?  Are you to ask forgiveness of your sins?  Are you to take communion every week?  Well, as my New Testament professor at seminary, Dr. Agneta Enermalm, would say:  (in her best Swedish-English accent) “Yes, but no.” In other words, yes, God requires things of you, but at the same time, we get some choices in what those are, thanks to the little thing called free will.

            Often times we get caught up in what we think God wants us to do.  Often times we interpret the asking of the church as the asking of God.  However, the prophet Micah tells us exactly what God wants us to do.  We are to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.  That’s it.  That’s all that is there.  The catch is this:  we all do these three things slightly different, especially the latter.  These three “requirements” are what makes up the spirituality that is our faith.  Walking humbly with God perhaps means coming to church every week, or taking communion regularly, or handing out pamphlets in neighborhoods, or floating down a class 5 rapid on the river.   Or perhaps it means something else to you.  Doing justice and loving kindness reflect not only the Jewish tradition and its belief, but also gets to the heart of what it means to be a Christian.

            Every day we are presented with new obstacles, ones in which we will be able to exercise these three “requirements”.  Think about the obstacles that you have on a daily basis, and if you handle them with justice, love and walking humbly with God.   If not, I encourage you to try your best to meet these three things that God requires of us.

In our prayers this week:

Alma, the mothers of Doris and Gail, all those that are traveling.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson