“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.” Micah 6:8
My family used to be ancestor-worshippers. Barely five years old, I assisted my mother by carrying plates laden with food and fruits to serve and place them before the ornately framed photographs of my grandparents. We would burn incense and joss-sticks and pray to each grandparent in turn, asking for their blessings. This ritualistic performance of worship at every Chinese New Year or the birthdays of the dearly departed served as a vivid reminder of the social-spiritual relationship and hierarchy between men and gods.
I became a Christian in my teenage years. Members of my family followed suit several years later. Naturally, we expunged the ancestor-worship routines from our lives, treating such practices as superstitious drivel. However, in discarding all practical rituals of worship and removing them from familial traditions, we missed a very illustrative manner to express our devotion.
How do we worship? In the Old Testament, the prophet Micah asked a series of rhetorical questions (Micah 6:6-7):
“With what shall I come before the LORDand bow down before the exalted God?Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,Shall I come before Him with yearling calves?Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
Considering these questions allow us to be in the right frame of mind to reaffirm the appropriate relationship between the Creator God and His lowly servants. With some trepidation, we could respectfully ask, “What can I offer you God?”. To which, the real answer is, that there is nothing of any value we could give that would be adequate.
The early Christians were willing to become martyrs. Even so, the offering our very lives would not be adequate. How can we find any proper offering in exchange for the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ?
Still, it is alright to approach God with these questions. These almost unanswerable questions will make us see our unworthiness and place all our achievements and possessions in their proper perspective. Perhaps the only appropriate response is not in considering what offering to bring or what sacrifices to make but to ask, “What do you require me to do?” The prophet Micah's answer was
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.And what does the LORD require of you?To act justly and to love mercyand to walk humbly with your God.”
This invitation to walk with God is unbelievably gracious. There is a description of this walk with God in Genesis 3:8: “the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day”. The only two persons to have enjoyed such an experience in 'the cool of the day' and to have heard 'the sound of the Lord' were Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
What a waste! Despite enjoying such blissfulness with God, Adam and Eve, in their pride, chose to disobey God and thus rob us of Eden. But now Jesus presents us with another opportunity to walk with God, 'Now Walk With God'
On God's holy word I challenge you.
To give to the Lord your life anew,
My friend, make your choice; he waits for you
For this is the moment of truth.
Now walk with God and he will be your dearest friend
Where'er you go; in everything you do
And may your life reflect His love to everyone
Now walk with God and He will walk with you.
What will the nature of this walk with God be? I think it will be:
• A physical experience: a walk by the sea or in the woods, in touch with nature and to note the beauty of God's creation in the cool of the day.
• A prayerful experience: a walk that will be contemplative and inspiring; a respectful conversation and fellowship will ensue.
• A practical experience: a walk involving some form of ministry to others especially to the poor, needy and downtrodden.
Updated the article which was first published on 1 January 2011
