Show or Tell?

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Micah 6:8

 The scripture text for today is a verse which is probably familiar to many of us. The Lord, through the prophet Micah, speaks of three things He requires of us. They are:

1. To do justly

2. To love mercy

3. To walk humbly with God

I want us to zero in on point number two today and to recognize the command is not given for us to just tolerate mercy or to put up with mercy or even to show a little mercy every now and then. It says we are to love mercy. I have mentioned in this blog before that God is a God who demonstrates His love for us.

He also demonstrates His mercy.

If we claim to be His followers and filled with His Spirit then we are to also demonstrate that we love mercy.

How do we do that?

We do that by recognizing that we cannot simply give lip service to the mercy of God but must be a people not only aware of His mercy to us but ones who also extend His mercy to others. Loving mercy means I look for ways to be merciful. I go out of my way to be merciful and I, especially, graciously extend mercy when it would be far, far easier to judge another person as being unworthy of receiving mercy.

My life demanded judgment but God gave me mercy instead.

God loves mercy and shows us (not only through today’s verse but particularly through His actions) that loving mercy is a good thing.

Did you happen to catch the start of Micah 6:8?

Isn’t it interesting that the scripture is written as it is?

It does not say: “He has told you…” but instead it is written: “He has shown you…”

As Jesus would say to us: “Now, go and do likewise…”