What does God want?
Posted On July 23, 2019
Throughout my life, people have asked me, what does God want of me. I think the best scripture to reflect on comes from Micah 6:8 where God reveals the following.
“You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you:
Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
When I read this, it tells so much in a short sentence, but is packed with so much more. Let’s take each one of them.
1. Only to do justice
Justice has to do with treating others fairly the way we would want to be treated and in a way that satisfies God’s law. Going back to the Pentateuch (first five books of the bible), God revealed his laws to humanity. If you carefully read through them, they are packed with an understanding of our relationship both with God and with our neighbor. God’s desire is for humanity to treat each other in a way that looks at the dignity of one another. It had severe consequences for those who violated the law. Today, I think it is best summed up in the two greatest commandments Jesus revealed in Mark 34 to love God and to love neighbor. We can also see in the teachings of Jesus, how he tried to both teach and show through his life how we are to live in a just way with each other.
Justice has to do with treating others fairly the way we would want to be treated and in a way that satisfies God’s law. Going back to the Pentateuch (first five books of the bible), God revealed his laws to humanity. If you carefully read through them, they are packed with an understanding of our relationship both with God and with our neighbor. God’s desire is for humanity to treat each other in a way that looks at the dignity of one another. It had severe consequences for those who violated the law. Today, I think it is best summed up in the two greatest commandments Jesus revealed in Mark 34 to love God and to love neighbor. We can also see in the teachings of Jesus, how he tried to both teach and show through his life how we are to live in a just way with each other.
2. To love goodness (translated also to kindness or mercy in some versions)
If we are a just people, then we will love goodness and not evil. We will want to do that which is right before God and man to show the love of God to others and to allow the light of God to shine before humanity. To love goodness means to understand our relationship with God and each other and to seek what is best for both ourselves and others, but with a consideration to putting others first before ourselves. When we interact with others, do we do so with mercy. If someone makes a mistake, are we quicker to forgive or do we seek justice from a punitive standpoint. Our American way of life has become one where people mark every word a person says, changes it and try to tear each other down. There seems to be no understanding of mercy or a sense of goodness in our dealings with others. It also has to do with our use of our monies. Do we give to bless others, or hoard what God freely has given to us only for ourselves? Do we seek to pay our debts to others even when it may be hard for us.
If we are a just people, then we will love goodness and not evil. We will want to do that which is right before God and man to show the love of God to others and to allow the light of God to shine before humanity. To love goodness means to understand our relationship with God and each other and to seek what is best for both ourselves and others, but with a consideration to putting others first before ourselves. When we interact with others, do we do so with mercy. If someone makes a mistake, are we quicker to forgive or do we seek justice from a punitive standpoint. Our American way of life has become one where people mark every word a person says, changes it and try to tear each other down. There seems to be no understanding of mercy or a sense of goodness in our dealings with others. It also has to do with our use of our monies. Do we give to bless others, or hoard what God freely has given to us only for ourselves? Do we seek to pay our debts to others even when it may be hard for us.
3. To walk humbly with your God
We have to ask ourselves if we are following our own ways, or we are seeking God with a view to say yes to God. There is an old saying, “God is God and I am not”. It sums up well the disposition we should consider first. If God is the one who created us, then our desire should be to please God. Does God get the glory in the blessings we receive or do we seek the credit for them through our own efforts? If God tells us to do something, is our attitude, be it done unto me according to your word or no, I don’t have time right now or that can’t really be God, because he would never ask me to give up my way of life? What does it mean to really be humble before God. I heard someone say once that humility is power under control. In other words, allowing God to be Lord of everything I am, have or can be, means surrendering to what God wants and to pursue that with everything in me.
We have to ask ourselves if we are following our own ways, or we are seeking God with a view to say yes to God. There is an old saying, “God is God and I am not”. It sums up well the disposition we should consider first. If God is the one who created us, then our desire should be to please God. Does God get the glory in the blessings we receive or do we seek the credit for them through our own efforts? If God tells us to do something, is our attitude, be it done unto me according to your word or no, I don’t have time right now or that can’t really be God, because he would never ask me to give up my way of life? What does it mean to really be humble before God. I heard someone say once that humility is power under control. In other words, allowing God to be Lord of everything I am, have or can be, means surrendering to what God wants and to pursue that with everything in me.
Is any of this easy? Not always. Jesus gave up everything to follow the will of the Father and he was killed for it on this earth. Picking up our crosses God gives to us is not going to be always easy. In Micah’s time, things had become corrupt and the people had turned away from God. As God has always done, he used Micah to call the people back to himself giving them mercy and a chance to come back. He sought their good first, so it would fulfill his divine justice. We too must consider God’s calling to us and what he really wants from us. That is nothing less than our very selves given over to a loving God who wants only the best for each of us.