MICAH 6:8.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

TO PONDER

I often worry when an Old Testament verse like this becomes as well known as this one. People tend to recite it and quote it in all sorts of ways and often completely out of context.

Here's the thing, this vers is part of God's response to the people of Israel who were under the impression that God was happy with them because they followed his laws. The only problem was that they had created all sorts of loop holes and work arounds to 'God's law' that while they may have been keeping the 'letter of the law' they had forgotten about the 'spirit' in which the laws were given.

Sometimes we can still be like this today. We can get so caught up in insisting that worship services be conducted in a certain way, with our musical preferences, and traditional liturgical forms. We can complain that a song with the word 'hallelujah' was included in the service during Lent (traditionally this is a big liturgical no-no) but our religious observances are not what God is primarily worried about. What God wants is a people set apart for himself, marked first and foremost, not by his law but by his mercy and grace.

Sure, God's law can be a good way to remind us of how to treat others well and might even restrain some of our more selfish and destructive tendencies, but what they are really all about is forming a people concerned with justice and mercy.

How might your life look different if your main priority today was to act justly and love mercy?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, Written on a page like this, it seems that your don't require much of us at all. However the reality of acting with justice - not vengeance - and loving to do mercy instead of seeking compensation is a daily struggle. Please help me to prioritise justice and mercy in all I do today so that others might see something of the difference you have made in my life. Amen

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle