Act Justly,Have Mercy,Walk Humbly Part 3

Hi friends,

Hope you are all doing well. In the last two posts we have explored the first two requirements God has of us from Micah 6:8 which are  to ACT JUSTLY and to  HAVE MERCY . Today let us study what the 3rd part -

               3)WALK HUMBLY –

The term "humility" comes from the Latin  word humilitas,  which means   "from the earth"(humus), “grounded” or "low". In other words it is meekness or modesty and is the opposite of arrogance or pride. Humility is a heart attitude and also a prerequisite to be great in the Kingdom of God.  Godly humility is not false modesty or being a doormat. On the other hand, it is being so comfortable with who we are in the Lord and therefore being able to put others first.

Psalms 25:9 “He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.”

All the men of God used greatly by God in the Bible were the most humble people who lived.

Gen 41:16 “Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, "It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer."

Numbers 12:3 “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth” Hence was greatly used by God

In Math 11:29 Jesus said  “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” He is indeed  the very epitome of Humility ; we see this portrayed especially in Philippians 2:5 -11 “ have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God,  did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being  made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself  by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

 In Mark 9:35   Jesus sat down and he called the twelve and said to them, “He who wants to be first shall be last, and the servant of every person.”

He demonstrated this in John 13:3-5 which says: “ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” We see here that Jesus was so secure in His identity and purpose that He could willingly wash His disciples feet. When we know fully who we are in Christ and what His assignment  of us really is,then and only then will we be able to joyfully serve our brother, honoring him more than ourselves (Rom 12:10 ) 

There are great rewards for walking in humility.

1 Pet 5:5,6 “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another  for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”

Prov 15:33 “….before honor comes humility.”

Prov 22: 4 “The reward of humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, honor and life.”

Related link :Click  MEEKNESS IS NOT WEAKNESS 

Would you like to really see how humble you are? Here’s a checklist of 9 characteristics of a humble person acc to Joyce Meyer. I recently came across it and felt it a pretty good yardstick to measure those areas where we yet need to improve…Caution it can be eye opening! J

Click here for Joyce Meyers 9 Characteristics of a Humble Person !

Let us sing with King David : WHO AM I THAT YOU ARE MINDFUL OF ME ? SONG  

2 Sam 7:18 “Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, ”Who am I , O Lord God , and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?”

This beautiful Video sums it up all 3 posts we have just seen perfectly… ENJOY!

Click below to sing : SHOW JUSTICE,LOVE MERCY,WALK HUMBLY - by Andy Bromley 

Related posts-  PART 1 ACT JUSTLY , PART 2 SHOW MERCY,

CHRISTIANITY  W/O CHRIST 

Hope you enjoyed this post. Have a blessed week!

Love and prayers,      

Sparky Laurie

Act Justly, Have Mercy,Walk Humbly Part 2

     

Hi friends,

         Hope  you are all doing well. In my previous post I mentioned to you how God had been speaking to me through Micah 6:8 as to what He requires from us. We saw Part 1 which describes what it means to Act Justly, today let us study what the second part means   

2) HAVE MERCY –                                 

                              

  

According to Zech 7:9, "True justice actually means to have mercy." Now let us see what mercy means.

Mercy means compassion, pity, forgiveness, kindness, sympathy, understanding, benevolence.

To understand this better let us see what MERCY is not  . The opposites of Mercy are Cruelty, unkindness, meanness, nastiness, brutality/malice, spite, vindictiveness, viciousness ruthlessness, heartlessness, harshness.

The above words are easily a clear description of the world we live in today. Tuning in to the morning news would give you the visual imagery of the same.

Lam 3:22-23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Psalms 136:1-26  Repeatedly tells us from 1^st verse till last verse :  “O give thanks to the Lord for His mercy endures forever.”

Mathew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”  

                             

There is a small difference between LOVE and Mercy. MERCY means extending LOVE even when the other doesn’t deserve it. It is easy to Love but what about MERCY ? This is an area I struggle a lot  and He has been repeatedly reminding me how when  I didn’t deserve MERCY both He and many loved ones in my life had extended me MERCY.As He opened my eyes I could see what I was blind to earlier and this brought a new prayer on my lips "Lord Make me Merciful just as you are Merciful." Do for me what I can never do in a 1000 years no matter how hard I tried. And the process of Sanctification continues as He’s teaching me…to be Merciful….
Luke 6:36  “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful”

1 Pet 1:13 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”                

No matter how kind we may be, living in this fallen world often fills us with spite due to bitter experiences in our life, especially when the good we do is repaid by evil. Our natural inclination is then to harden our heart and become harsh in our dealings with those causing us pain. This will cause us to lose our sensitivity to the still small voice of  the Blessed Holy Spirit who leads us into all righteousness empowering us to be Holy even as our Father in Heaven is Holy. In fact Mercy is actually a FRUIT of the SPIRIT.

 Related post :SPIRITUAL FRUIT SALAD

Knowing all we have gone through and going through and will go through, He still commands us :
Mathew 9:13 “ Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
When tempted to justify our unkind actions and blame our hard heartedness on our compelling circumstances, let us remember Our Precious Lord Jesus lying bruised ,broken ,naked ,humiliated and alone on that Cross. 

The ISV Bible says Jesus kept saying, "Father, forgive them, because they don't know what they're doing."

Related post :PERSONALITY OF GOD - PART 4 HUMANITY 

And what were we complaining about? The Good News is that our God is so rich in Mercy and we can be sure that no matter how badly we mess up and miss the mark, we can always find Mercy as we rush to His Throne of Grace with tearful eyes and repentant heart. He is a Good Good God whose mercies endure forever.

Heb 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” 

Ephesians 2:4-7 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”                                   

We can be sure that as we learn all other things by sheer dependence on the Holy Spirit, we can learn Mercy as well.

Psalms 23 :6 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Click below and enjoy these  catchy  MERCY SONGs :   

2) Some Mercy for ME ! Greater is the one Living inside of me

 by MERCY ME -

Prayer : Lord fill us with your mercy. Help us to be merciful to ourselves and to others just as you are Perfect Father.Make us more like your Blessed Son Jesus. Holy Spirit empower us .-Amen

Hope you enjoyed this post. Next post we will examine part 3 in the series.

Have a blessed day!

Sparky Laurie

Related posts : PART 1 Act Justly , Part 3 Walk Humbly

Act Justly,Have Mercy,Walk Humbly Part -1

Hi friends,

Today morning as I woke , these are the words that kept coming up in my spirit- ACT JUSTLY, HAVE MERCY, WALK HUMBLY. Searching it up I found the verse is :

“He hath shown 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

 God is SIMPLY brilliant! His sheer brilliance is that the things of God are so simple; that a little child can understand them but they are also as profound as the oceans. Let us see in the consequent 3 blog posts one by one what God requires us to do -

1) ACT JUSTLY-

Justice means fairness, impartiality, righteousness, honesty, integrity.

Psalms 33:5 “The Lord loves   justice and righteousness.”

Isa 30:18 “For the Lord is a God of justice, blessed are those who wait for Him!”

Isa 61:8 “For I, the Lord, loves justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing .In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them.”

 To understand justice properly, let us see what injustice is. Injustice means  unfairness, prejudice, inequality, bias, discrimination. Looking around us today we can see a lot of injustice going in almost every walk of life.  People are denied what is rightfully theirs and are cheated of their inheritance for no cause or reason. This is injustice.

What does Justice do ? How can we act justly?

Proverbs 8:25 “Evil doers do not understand what is right but those who seek the Lord understand it fully.”

To act justly means to do the good that we know we should without delay or hesitation whether we are have support or are alone. Many times we see injustice around us but we don’t respond. We may look over our shoulder waiting for the next person to initiate the first move. There is a saying Justice Delayed is Justice Denied. So let us be quick and courageous enough to act when we see an opportunity- to speak up for the fatherless, to defend the innocent ,to take care of the destitute.

Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do right, seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”

Prov 27:9 “The righteous care about justice for the poor but the wicked  have no such concern.”

 In reality, acting justly may be the less popular thing to do. It may invite criticism and ridicule. It may draw unwanted attention or even persecution. But this is what our Lord Jesus modeled to us always speaking up for the oppressed in society the lepers, healing the  sick, encouraging and empowering both men and women, setting free those oppressed by the enemy.

There is a Reward for pursuing righteousness and acting justly.
Deu 16:20 “Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.”

Psalms 37:27-29 “Turn from evil and do good, then you will dwell in the land forever. For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones.

Isa 51:4-5 “Listen to me, my people, hear me, my nations: Instruction will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. My righteousness draws near speedily,my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations.The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm.

 Amos 5:24 “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream!” 

Let us sing GOD OF JUSTICE :  WE MUST GO 

Related post :  LET'S STOP PLAYING THE COURTROOM GAME

Part 3 WALK HUMBLY 

Hope you enjoyed this post, in my next post I will share about the second aspect and that is Part 2  HAVE MERCY.

Have a wonderful day!

Sparkylaurie