Every once in a while, a Bible verse keeps popping up so often in our day-to-day experiences that you can»t help but think, “God really wants me to hear this verse!”
The verse that has been appearing frequently in my life in the last weeks is Micah 6:8:
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.
Several writers of our daily devotionals at Creative Communications used it in their reflections. It was the reading in church a few weeks ago. And it is the theme verse for the year at the parochial school associated with my parish.
So I am asking myself, “Why has God put this particular verse in front of me lately?”
What strikes me about this verse as I ponder it more deeply is that it can serve as a kind of mission statement for the Christian life.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
God has shown us what is good through the life, death and resurrection of Christ and revealed to us our human condition and our inability to be good in the eyes of God on our own because of our sins. That is where the life of a Christian should always begin. We are only human, we will never be good, but we are made righteous through the blood of Christ.
And what does the Lord require of you?
Now that we know that we can never live up to the perfect life to enter into heaven, but that Christ has lived the perfect life and makes it possible for us to enter heaven only through faith in him, what does the Lord want us to do? This is where the concept of sanctification enters in. The Lord wants us to respond in gratitude to him for his salvation by saying and doing those things that help us to become more and more like Christ.
To act justly
Christ in his life acted justly, reaching out to the poor beggars and to the authority figures of the day. He did not let the sins of others prevent him from getting to know them or sharing his message of salvation with them. Our acts need to mirror his in this area as we seek to act in ways that just and that treat people the same as God sees them—children of God.
and to love mercy,
Christ was merciful to us and forgave our sins completely and loved us to death (literally). Now it is our turn to love others unconditionally and to show compassion unsparingly and to forgive endlessly those who have wronged us.
and to walk humbly with our God.
As Christians, we do not walk alone in this life. We have a constant travel companion, our good and gracious God in the Flesh, Jesus. We are to be humble before him in a way that does not presume we know what path to take, but always relying on him for direction and counsel. We must never forget in our daily living that he is continuously by our side and ready to listen to us. That is why he came to earth.
There you have it, a mission statement for every Christian to follow! I thank God for leading me to this verse and reminding me why I am here on this earth. Act, love and walk for Christ today!
