Micah gave us three things that God requires that we get to the heart level. This daily devotional begins by looking at why He gave us these three requirements.
Nuggets
- God has specifically told us what is good.
To read devotions in the At the Heart Level series, click the button below.
Devotions in the Where Are You At with the Requirements? series
We finished our redo for godliness theme with a series called The Test of Character. Hall said that humility was one of the tests.
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To read a related devotion, click the button below.
The verse we used with it was Micah 6: 8. It told us of two other areas that are required by God to complete our submission to what is good. They are justice and mercy.
We need to look at those other two because we must get them to the heart level, also. But first we are going to look at the good part. How are we going to come before God?
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
What Is Good?
“He has told you, O man, 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?” (Mic. 6: 8 ESV)
God has specifically told us what is good.
Good, in the biblical sense, is the workings of God within His people through His holy, pure, and righteous behavior. Evil is equated with sin because it is that which goes against God and His purposes.
- Holy means to be set apart, perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin..
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
God didn’t beat around the bush. He didn’t make it politically correct.
God told us point blank what we need to do in order to please Him.
Being good is all about being sinless and pure in God’s eyes. There is only one way to obtain that status.
Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
God doesn’t hide what that way is. “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 CSB).
Glossary
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God does call us to salvation. However, we are made in His image, so our consciences are inclined to seek Him.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
We can’t earn our way to salvation. God gets very upset when we try to do that.
But we’re not really talking about gaining salvation. We are talking about walking with God.
How do we appease God when He is upset? We do what He calls us to do: doing justice, loving mercifully, and walking in humility with Him.
When we look at those three requirements, we see that the first two requirements are how we treat others.
I love what Logan had to say. He wrote, “If a man will ‘do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before his God,’ all heavens that are worthy of the name will open wide before him.”
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Why will the heavens open up? It is because we are being obedient to God. We have become holy as He is holy.
Rowland gave us perfect advice. When we grow closer to God, our a Christian walk becomes easier.
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What Micah told the Israelites — and us — here was how to grow closer to God. If we look at these three requirements, Hall noted how practical they are, rather than theoretical.
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What Micah told them — and us — had nothing to do with their/our worship. It had everything to do with their/our lives.
What? You think that is difficult to do? It isn’t if we are obedient to God.
Remember, “[we] can do all things through him who strengthens [us]” (Phil. 4: 13 ESV). We can’t do it on our only. We can only do it through God’s strength.
Making the Connections
When Scriptures tell us about good, they mean the Good News. It is, however, good news, not bad news.
The Good News – the gospel – shows us our loving God. Following His laws and commandments is good for us.
Worcester discussed the link among justice, mercy, and godliness. He wrote, “Justice is the root, mercy the foliage, and godliness the fruit.” They are inseparable.
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The soil the plant is rooted in must be God’s Plan of Salvation. Without our repentance and turning back to Him.
Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to change our sinful ways to ways of righteousness through obedience.
Isn’t the theme familiar? Love, mercy, humility. Those are the moralities we talked about last year that need to be kicked up to spiritual graces.
How Do We Apply This?
- Above all, we need to acknowledge God’s sovereignty, accepting His requirements for our lives.
- We need to genuinely ABCD, submitting totally to God.
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Father God. We see that You are good. We submit to You and want to have Your character. Help us to mature in our faith so that we become more like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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