What is good!
What the Lord requires is quite simple. Micah 6:8 says: He has told you, O Man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God!
To DO justice: to exhibit just behavior and treatment. The definition for justice reads: a concern for justice, peace and genuine respect for people.
To LOVE kindness: Kindness is defined as the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate. We must LOVE these things.
To WALK humbly WITH your God: Walk, unhurried. Humbly, having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience. WITH your God, aware of His presence in and around you, fully dependent on Him, knowing that without Him you can do nothing.
How often do we rush through our prayer time or stillness in order to get to the “next” thing? Do you boast? How often do you view yourself as superior to others? Do you take the time on a regular basis to soak it all in and acknowledge moments in your daily life where God has rested His hand? What changes do you need to make with regard to these things?
This post has been in my “notes” for quite some time. I wrote it after hearing the readings during Sunday mass a few months ago. Why I hadn’t posted it I’m not sure. Maybe I felt I needed to elaborate a bit more. Anyway, today I was reading lecture notes for an Old Testament course I’m taking and here’s what I read:
And so the past is prologue. The prophetic conscience of the past becomes the prophetic consciousness of the present, if we open our minds and hearts to God. The people in the days of Micah were wondering about the right way to be religious, worrying about the correct performance of their rituals, concerning themselves with looking good. The prophet said to them: “What is good has been explained to you. The Lord wants only this: that you act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with your God.” taken from The Great Themes of Scripture: Old Testament by Joseph Martos and Richard Rohr (maybe this is why this post had to wait)
It’s really that simple. Why do we continually complicate things?
Examine your conscience today. Are you fulfilling the requirements? Are they your priority?
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