1) THAT YOU DO JUSTLY: While it’s easy to find corporate greed and political corruption in our culture, the truth is that it’s in us as well. We find it in our tax filing, our time clock punching, and even in the deals we make when we sell a car or a house. Doing what is right is fundamentally important to God. That we act with fairness, integrity, and honesty is at the heart of what it is to follow God. How you deal with your neighbor, your boss, or even a stranger is the heart of how you deal with God. You cannot separate behavior from belief. Belief and behavior are integrally linked.
2) THAT YOU LOVE MERCY: To surround ourselves with compassion, empathy, and steadfast love for each other. It’s interesting that this term stands in the center of the triumvirate of Justice and Walking with God. Mercy tempers our justice and it flows from our walk with God. Justice without mercy is barbaric – yet mercy without justice leads to destruction. God calls on His people to love kindness or mercy. We are to be a people who love people with God’s own heart. The heart that has been touched by the love of God is seen to exhibit and flow with the compassion, forgiveness, and love of God for others.
3) THAT YOU WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD: To walk humbly with God means…
• MATCH HIS COURSE – walking in the same direction as Him. To walk with God we have to know what direction He is going and match our course to His. We have to acknowledge who is in control of setting the course for our lives. You cannot go your own way, do your own thing, and be your own person and expect God to bless it. The blessing is in walking with God not asking Him to walk with you.
• MATCH HIS PACE – we are called to walk with God – to accompany Him – not to run ahead or lag behind. Running ahead always leads us down wrong paths. Lagging behind we loose sight of the one we are following and often get lost. If you walk with the One who knows the path you will never get lost.
• MATCH HIS PURPOSE – become His disciple: We are not coequals with God. We are the creation – He is the creator. We are the disciples – He is the Teacher. We are the servants – He is the master. We are the children – He is the Father. Understand the relationship. Too often we act with God like rebellious teens act with their parents – struggling for control – struggling to be number one – God’s requirement is that we walk humbly with Him – acknowledging His sovereignty, His leadership and His Lordship. The wonder is that He has invited us into that relationship.
God’s requirements for us are simple …
Live right – with integrity and justice
Love right – with compassion and mercy and steadfastness
Walk with Him – live as disciples of the Most High God (DAN CALE)