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What does God expect from us?

If you have ever had a formal job anywhere, you probably know what a job description is. It is my oppinion here, but I believe that there are three documents that every worker should have copies of ready at hand: a job description, a training manual/plan, and their evaluation form. A job description is simply a document that describes what is expected of you in your position. It spells out what skills you must have, briefly explains what tasks you will be doing, and paints an overall picture of what that job is made up of. So, you see how important it truly is. Your boss cannot morrally or realistically hold you accountable to any standard if it is not clearly communicated to you, and that is what your job description is.

So have you ever wondered about what your spiritual job description is? What does God expect us to do? Well, obviously, that document is found in the Bible, but where? And what exactly does it say? Look, for a moment in Micah 6:8, and consider this.

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

1: to do justly,
2: to love mercy,
3: to walk humbly with our God.

Three things, it sounds so simple, yet it is so involved!! How do we even begin to do that?! I will tell, since you asked, how we can start to do that. It all starts with the Word of God. It always starts with the Word of God! You have to get in it. Start reading it regularly, then you have to pray faithfully. You get in a good, solid, Bible believing church and into a good Bible study. Then you begin bearing fruit as it is mentioned in Scripture.

Let's look at #3, to walk humbly with our God. What does that mean? First of all it means that we have to lose ourselves from the equation. We have to stop thinking about what we want, about our desires, our goals, our ambitions, what we enjoy, what is troublesome to us. And instead, we begin to look at what God wants, at His desires, His goals, His ambitions, what He enjoys, what is troublesome to Him. And we begin to reprogram our thoughts to match His. Do you understand that idea? It means that God is more important to us than we are. Easier said than done, I know, but so true and sooooo important! That is what it means to walk humbly with our God. It means that we put ourselves where we belong, on the back burner, in the roll of a servant. It means that we understand that God doesn't owe us anything, that we owe Him everything. It means that our oppinion doesn't matter, only His oppinion matters. It means that our ambitions are empty unless they agree with His ambitions. It means that God is our number 1 priority; more important than our boyfriend/girlfriend, more important than our family, our job, our education, our friends, our hobby, our car, our reputation, everything. Jesus was willing to leave Heaven to come here, and die for us; how much is it really to ask of us to live here for Him so we can live there with Him? Jim Elliot once said,

"It is no great loss, to lose that which you cannot keep, to gain that which you cannot lose."

Lets look at #1 and #2. Often we try to apply mercy to ourselves and justice to others when it should be the other way around. It's harder to live like that, but far more rewarding. Not long ago, I was discussing God with my father, and we were talking about the relationship that holiness had with justice and righteousness, and love had with mercy and grace. You see, God does justice and righteousness because He is holy. He does mercy and grace because He is loving. It is His essence that leads the action into existance. He does "action" because he is "essence". It is God's holy essence that drives Him to do righteously and justly. It is His loving essence that drives Him to do mercifully and graciously. Do you understand the relationship here? This is important because if you noticed, in #'s 1 and 2 God told us to love mercy and to do justly. Mercy is driven by Love, and Justice is driven by Holiness. God is telling us here that He wants us to reflect His very nature in our lives. He wants us to reflect the very nature of God by demonstrating His holiness in our lives, by demonstrating His love in our lives. How, I ask you, can we do this if we do not walk humbly with Him? See, it all comes full circle. This is why God is not satisfied when we "just come to church". He wants us to walk WITH Him. Don't you see? That is what we were designed for!!! God made Adam to walk with Him in the Garden. But since the fall of man, we haven't been able to do that like we were designed. That is why Jesus came down to Earth and died for us, so that we could be restored to Him and walk with Him again. Have you ever walked with someone without spending time with them? If you have, you are the first to do so. To walk with someone implies that there is some interaction happening on some level. It is personal, sometimes intimate. People share precious moments while walking together. This is what God longs for! For us to walk humbly with Him. When we walk humbly, we are free to see things that enrich our lives, free to understand truth for the first time. Free to serve and experience the joy of it. When we walk humbly with our God, then we can then experience Him. When we experience Him, then He will change us, re-wire us from the inside out and then we will begin to reflect His very nature to others. And that, my friend, is when we can then go out and change the world!!!

It is the height of ingrattitude to look at what Christ did for us and say, I don't owe God anything! or that He should be happy with just a little of my time instead of my whole self. After all, "what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

thanks for thinking about it.

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