Micah 6:8, a three-way step to live:

One of my favorite stores in the entire world is a store called, “World’s Window” in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  This is a fair trade store where everything is made from around the world, ethically and sustainably.  They are now selling the starfish project jewelry which is a brand that raises awareness and funds for those who have been human-trafficked, and many of the pieces have been made by those very survivors. I had the opportunity to go shopping there recently, and I got a necklace that has the words, “walk humbly, love mercy, act justly.”  Many of you will recognize these small groupings of words.  They are from the verse, Micah 6:8, and this is also one of my favorite verses. 

The whole verse goes like this, “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.”  I love this verse because I think that it provides a blueprint for how we should live our lives.  I am going to break down these small groupings of words, but I am going to switch up the order for a very important reason, and that reason is that in order to do anything, we must first be walking with the Lord.  

I am first going to talk about the words, walk humbly.  As we see in the verse, this says, walk humbly with your God.  The only way that we are going to be able to do anything, including bearing a lot of fruit is through being humble and walking with God.  We can’t do anything on our own that is 100% pleasing to the Lord.  We need to have his spirit with us, every step of the way.  I have found the best way that I can walk humbly is through constant prayer and reflection.  I pray that God’s spirit will be the one to guide me.  I also then reflect on whether I am doing actions as a way to feel better about myself or as a way to grow closer to the Lord.  

The second one is to love mercy.  The general definition of mercy is, “to not receive what you deserve.”  In our Christian walk, we deserve death because of our sin.  We were not meant to have a relationship with the Lord.  We should not be given the chance to be with the Lord after we die in any way shape or form. However, the Lord paid our punishment when he died on the cross that then opened the door for the grace of eternity in heaven. That is mercy.  We should be in love at the mercy that God has provided for us, but we should also love mercy for other people.  Yes, we can still believe that there is justice.  I am not saying that we need to believe that no one deserves any punishment ever.  However, we can believe in forgiveness and the power that it can bring.  

The third one then is my absolute favorite, and it is probably the reason why I love this verse so much as well as love this necklace I purchased. This is to act justly.  To act justly is to try your best to be completely fair.  There are some social systems that need to be eradicated and fixed in our world today.  There are some issues that need to be discussed.  If any of us watch the news, then we can see this very clearly.  Acting justly means being willing to see the problems in the world and be willing to fix them.  Acting justly means standing up for our faith.  Acting justly means treating everyone in the world, who are all creations of the Lord, with complete respect and love.  

There are times that I just want to skip right to acting justly.  I hear about a good cause and I want to be a part of it.  I want to fundraise, I want to raise awareness, and I want to make it a part of my life. I will use the example of the fundraiser that I do every year called, “Dressember.”  I love doing Dressember.  I love wearing dresses all throughout the month of December and raising awareness and funds to end human trafficking.  However, there are times when I don’t spend time really thinking about the whole reason I love Dressember.  I can make this fundraiser all about myself.  I make this a fundraiser where people get to see my pretty dresses and outfits, they get to help me raise money, and I get to look like a good person.  However, that is not what this fundraiser is.  This is a fundraiser that is raising money and awareness for those who have been oppressed, and then even more importantly it is a fundraiser that is showing God’s heart for the ones left behind and the ones that are forgotten and have been hurt by the world.  

If I were going to focus on doing this fundraiser correctly, then I need to first spend a great deal of time in prayer.  I need to make sure that my heart is in the right place, and that I am pursuing this for the right reasons.  I have tried to be a lot better at spending time in prayer and writing down Dressember as a prayer request before I start the fundraiser.  Then I should spend some more time reading about the issue at hand that I am choosing to fight for because this will help me develop more compassion and a desire for mercy to those who are suffering.  Lastly, I then will be able to act justly and will be able to fight for those who are hurting.  

I hope that all of you can remember the power of Micah 6:8.  This is really a lovely verse and shows the power that God’s spirit can have amongst his people as well as the love that he shares with all of us.  My hope is that when any of us become passionate about an issue in our world, or whenever we are about ready to stand up for our faith, we first remember to pray to the Lord for his strength as well as remember the power of mercy and forgiveness.  Remember, this is something the Lord has shown us as good.