Day 350

Micah 5:1–7:20; Revelation 7:1-17; Psalm 135:1-21; Proverbs 30:5-6

IN OUR READING from Micah today, we explored what God really wants from us. Amid a season in which we are trying to give everyone in our lives what they want, it’s a fair consideration. What does God want that we could give Him as a gift?

Before we can get to that, we have to look at what He doesn’t want. And before we can consider that, we must ponder a couple of very sad questions that come through the prophet —questions from the heart of God: “O my people, what have I done to you? What have I done to make you tired of me? Answer me!” (Micah 6:3).

These are profoundly disturbing questions. If we were to replace “my people” with our own names, we would immediately see why. Ironically, we wouldn’t expect God to be asking such questions. We might find ourselves asking these questions of God, but we don’t expect to hear them from God. It’s almost as if God is asking what else He must do to get our attention and prove His love —which is heartbreaking.

Following these questions, God listed many examples of ways He had cared for and protected His people —and they still betrayed Him. In response, Micah rhetorically mused about what might be done, through rituals of worship, to show God how very repentant they were and to give Him what they thought He wanted:

What can we bring to the LORD? Should we bring him burnt offerings? Should we bow before God Most High with offerings of yearling calves? Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?

Was that what God wanted?

No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

There it is. In this season, God wants us to do what is right —most literally, that we act justly. He wants us to love mercy —which is different from being occasionally merciful —and He wants us to walk humbly with Him, to move through life with a keen awareness of His presence and of our role in revealing His love for humankind through our lives. This is what He wants. But honestly, this is the collaboration we also long for.

Often, the Christmas season can leave us feeling frazzled. Yes, we’re more busy than usual, and certainly our rhythms are disrupted, but beneath all of it, the existential questions of meaning and purpose creep in as the books begin closing on another year. In these times, it’s important to realize that God can use the disruption of the season to bring up the deeper work of the soul.

He is less interested in the beautiful mayhem of Christmastime and more interested in the shining star of a life that honors all that He’s done and all that He has yet to do in the world through it. Since we’re attempting to give everyone else in our lives what they want, let’s give God what He wants: May we do what is right, may we love mercy, and may we walk humbly with our God.

WORSHIP:

Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen.