“The Lord has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you; to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”  Micah 6:8

Yes, God requires something of His children.  

To do what is right.  To love mercy.  To walk humbly with Him, our personal God.  I cannot require or even expect this from others, even other believers.  But I can yield myself completely to One that will reward what He requires; who will equip for what He expects.  I can commit to living out this Biblical mandate, and be emboldened and empowered by His grace to actually be able to do it.  

To do what is right.  This is not “right” according to me.  This is “right” according to a holy God.  Scripture, in the book of Judges, records the chaos and darkness of a people that “did that which was right in his own eyes”.  When one is left to determine what is right for himself in any given situation, we are on a collision course to destruction.  In other words, somebody always gets hurt.  And it is often the believer that suffers, the one that has a whole-hearted desire to fully follow after God, the one that truth and integrity and honesty and kind consideration really matters to.  And that’s often enough to discourage some, making them question the God they serve.  Why??  That’s the question when wrong gets the upper hand. It’s a tough pill to swallow when wrong appears to win.  And it’s not a new question.  

    “You have said terrible things about me, says the Lord.

But you say, What do you mean? What have we said against you?  

You have said, What’s the use of serving God?  What have we gained by obeying His commands…?”  Malachi 3:13-14

But the child of God does not need to struggle with these questions.  The faithful servant that has embraced grace, has experienced the reality and unrelenting love of God, the one that loves and serves Him because He first loved them, that child can throw themselves into the open arms of a great Savior that confirms over and over again that He is enough and there is everything to gain in Christ.  Jesus, in all His tender compassion, His forgiveness, the acceptance and belonging that is found with Him, the sweet comfort of knowing He will never leave or abandon His own, the overwhelming peace that is often impossible to explain but is very, very real...He is enough.  And He has revealed himself through His Word, the promises are true and relevant.  So never back away from doing right.  

    “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  (Philippians 1: 21)

    “In His favor is life; weeping may endure for night, but joy comes in the morning.”

(Psalms 30:5)

To love mercy.  This is a tough one, but again, nothing He requires is beyond His enabling grace to accomplish.  Why is this so tough?  Because mercy defined means it is extended to the undeserving.  It demands that we relinquish the right, even the desire to retaliate, to wish that those who wrong us suffer accordingly.  When everything in you is screaming “you should pay!” it means giving that too, to Jesus.  And believe me, He can be trusted to do right by His children.  

“He [Jesus] did not retaliate when He was insulted, nor threaten revenge when He suffered.  He left His case in the hands of God who always judges fairly.”  (I Peter 2: 23-24)

Jesus left us this example and the rest of I Peter is full of encouragement and reminders of God’s faithfulness in providing for, comforting, blessing, those that “suffer for right’s sake” and do not return evil for evil.  He will hold you until the hurt heals.  He will bring you to the place that you LOVE mercy, because you are reminded often that He extends it to you on a regular basis.  He is full of mercy...unfailing love...and we can abandon ourselves to that unfailing love because it is eternal.  And, to take it a step further, we can love others this way because of Him.  Love Mercy!

Walk humbly with your God.  There is no other way to walk with God.  We can know God.  We can know about God. We can talk the God-talk.  But to walk with Him?  To have a vibrant, intimate, personal relationship with Him that alters our egos? To live as Jesus lived?  “To cast down every imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”?? (2 Corinthians 10:5) We are so often so full of ourselves.  What we want, how we feel, what we need...our future, our friends, our reputation, our...our...our..; me, me, me!!  Stop for one moment and say with John, “He must increase, I must decrease” (John 3:30).  Jesus will never be who He can and should be in your life until you are not the most important person in it.  Stop living for yourself.  Start living for Him!  And remember, it’s not just about “walking humbly”, but walking humbly WITH YOUR GOD.    

      “Pride and arrogance, and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.”  Proverbs 8:13

He has shown you what is good.   To live a life this way...doing right, loving mercy and walking humbly with God, this is the good life.  We don’t have to question or debate what “good” is.  He has graciously explained it, made it known.  It is no mystery, it’s simplicity is just not always appreciated.  And the fact that it is required?  We’re the better for it.  It’s the better way.  

By His grace, no regrets. None.

You Can Do It!!

“If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15-16). A call to love, or a call to obedience? It is both. And it is possible. But I can no longer count the number of times I have heard the following responses and others similar:

“You don’t understand. I just can’t do that.” forgive, be kind, study harder
“It’s too much to ask. God doesn’t really expect that does He? Not today at least. Maybe in Bible times, but that just doesn’t apply today.” stay pure, give of self and finances
“It was just a little white lie, no harm was done. Besides, it was for a good cause” be honest, have integrity
“But I think God understands how much I wanted this, how much I needed it.” avoid debt, be patient, be content
“Oh they’ll grow out of it. It’s just a phase. but it’s so cute at this age! It’s just not right to make them do something they don’t want to do.” discipline children, teach and train for godly character, set boundaries


I could go on. If there is an issue we deal with today the Scripture addresses it. God has a way for things to be handled. He knows the outcome of the right (righteous) response to His Word. Is obedience too much to ask of His children when He has done so much for us? And it is for our good always. His call to obedience is with our best interest in mind, because He loves us, not because He is a tyrant that enjoys having his subjects in paltry servitude.

Now, about a call to love. “If you love me, keep my commandments.” This raises a few questions. Can we keep His commandments apart from loving Him? If I don’t keep His commandments, does this mean I don’t truly love Him, or love Him as I should? This verse infers that our love for Christ is questionable at the least. We see in Revelation 2: 1-6 that it is possible to be doing right things but our love and devotion to our Savior not be all it could or should be.

Our love is fickle; it is weak; it is often merely emotional. And, it is dependent on Him who is Love. I John 4:10 says that we love Him because He first loved us. The more important fact is that Christ loves us. God loves us enough to not leave us in the wretched condition He first finds us in. And a life without Christ, at its very best, is still wretched with eternity in view. Embracing His love and growing in an understanding of His love for us enables us to love Him in return. In so doing, we find a desire to obey that can grow strong.

When it does not seem possible to obey as the Lord would have us to, no matter what the situation or issue, we can be confident He has already made a way for us to do what He has asked. Immediately after Jesus speaks to his disciples and says “If you love me, keep my commandments”, He continues saying,
“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14: 16-17).

After walking with His disciples for three years Jesus knew they would question their ability to love Him…consider Peter and his denial of Christ, then Jesus in John 21 penetrating Peter’s heart with the simple question, “Do you love me?” They would need His power to love and obey. And He sent it in the work and person of the Holy Spirit to live in us, just as He promised. In I Corinthians 3:16, “don’t you realize the Spirit of God lives in you?” (my paraphrase) And again in Romans 8:9, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His”. If we belong to Christ then the Holy Spirit dwells in us and longs to empower us to obey.

Consider this: if a bill needs to be paid and the money is in the bank to be used to pay it, but we say we cannot, we either deny or ignore the resources available to us. Or, we do not expend the effort or do what is necessary to have the funds applied. In the same way, there is first the choice to obey, then the effort or process of actually following through.

The choice? “By God’s grace, I will obey.”
The effort? Pray; seek accountability, encouragement or counsel; read His Word; set aside time for worship and service; avoid situations that make it easier to disobey.

If we love Him we are to keep His commandments. Not keeping them is to communicate otherwise. We can fool ourselves, we can fool others, but God is not fooled. And it is the relationship with Him that is most important. We can obey more, and we can love Him always. And we have all the Help we need to do so.