2 posts tagged “devotion”
He has told you, O man, what is good,
and what the Lord really wants from you:
He wants you to promote justice, to be faithful,
and to live obediently before your God.- Micah 6:8
Here's another GC oldie. This verse always struck me with its simplicity.
It starts off with "He has told you" - in other words: This is not rocket science, people, plus it's something you already know but simply keep forgetting.
The three things are so striking: "Promote" (or "do") justice - be honest, fight for justice in society (wow, do I do this?), stand in for truth. "Be faithful" - stop backsliding, keep in step with the Spirit (don't lag behind, don't run ahead), be diligent and trustworthy. "Live obediently before your God" (or "walk humbly/carefully/cautiously with your God") - take God seriously, put yourself under His authority, be teachable and humble.
Things I often can raise above these three things may be Good Things™, but they're not what God really wants from me. Somehow, keeping my walk with God and my devotion "pure and simple" (2 Corinthians 11:3) seems to be anything but simple to really maintain.
I've always loved Josiah. At 16 years old Chronicles describes him as starting to seek the Lord. But what struck me today was the following verse:
In the eighteenth year of his reign, he continued his policy of purifying the land and the temple.
2 Chronicles 34:8
Naturally, the lives of the kings described in Chronicles, and their struggle with defeating idolatry in their land, "purifying" their land, etc., all has a strong symbolic character (not to take away from the history): The author of Chronicles seems to be prodding us: Are we as diligent of "cleaning house" in our own lives as these kings were in their country?
The last few years have been one adjustment after another for me personally. Am I willing to "continue my policy" of living for Christ, purifying anything he points out in my life, walking in love and holiness, making sacrifices, tearing down idols in my life and "tossing aside anything that hinders"? Am I willing to be that man?
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