Easy as 1, 2, 3...

“Mankind, He has told you what is good
and what it is the Lord requires of you:
to act justly,
to love faithfulness,
and to walk humbly with your God.”

Micah 6:8 is a verse that most people know. Right here we have a blueprint of exactly what God was requesting of his people. But the people Micah was ministering to just weren’t listening. Now to be clear, to make Micah 6:8 a salvation text is to misunderstand the message of the prophet. None of us can do what God requires until we first come to God as broken sinners who need to be saved. We can’t “act justly” unless we’ve first been justified by faith and are right with God. How could we possibly “love faithfulness” if we haven’t personally experienced God’s loving faithfulness? Finally, if we want to “walk humbly” with God, we must first bow humbly before Him, confess our sins, and claim His promise of forgiveness.

Unbelievers who think they are acting justly, loving faithfulness, and walking humbly with God are doing nothing more than fooling themselves; it doesn’t matter how moral their lives might be.
Titus 3:5 puts it like this: "Not by works righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us."

Friends, before we get comfortable up there on our high horses we need to remember that the only people God can save are lost people; the only people God can forgive are guilty people. If we see ourselves as God sees us, then we can by faith become what He wants us to become. But first, we must get out of our own way.

Honestly, walking humbly with God may be the most challenging part of this text. We are much better at defining what it isn’t than what it is. For instance, to walk humbly is to neither to have your nose up in the air nor your shoulders slouched over your feet. To walk humbly is to not exalt yourself, to not worry or be bothered by other people's opinions of you. To walk humbly is not to be above someone or below someone, but rather with someone. It is not thinking you can do it all on your own, carrying the burdens upon your limited human shoulders. It is not forgetting you are human. It is not living without grace. It is not playing God. So maybe walking humbly with God is simply about paying attention to who we are and what is around us. It is as Micah said, "I will wait on God, and God will hear me.

If we want to have a chance to live out Micah 6:8 we have to come humbly before God, will you do that today?