Micah

After years of warning, Israel and Judah start falling into bad habits of worshiping false gods and cheating the poor. 

So GOD sends Micah to warn them that GOD expects greater things from them. 

The book of Micah is written like a legal argument, with Micah putting forward God's case to his people.  They are asked why they have forsaken what God asks of them, and are reminded that what He asks is simple... "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)

They are warned that they will be judged, and GOD does this by sending the Babylonians and Assyrians to destroy them.  (Do you remember the Assyrians?  God had a plan for them it seems.)

MICAH
Do good, love mercy,
and walk humbly with your God.
Or you will be judged.

What God asks of us is not so hard, but we struggle so much with it.

Be just today.
Be merciful (and loving) today.
Be humble today.
Walk with God.

Day One : Humility

Today, let me pray, for a spirit of...

HUMILITY

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
James 4:10

One of the ideas of Lent is to use the time to draw closer to God. It is also about noticing and dealing with certain areas of our lives. So each day this season I will be focusing on trying to deal with a different spirit.

Today, we focus on having a spirit of Humility.

Humility is the opposite of pride. An antidote to pride. Humility is not about thinking less of ourselves, it's about thinking of ourselves less. Being self-forgetful.

How do we cultivate this spirit? By thinking about others first.

Jesus was the greatest man who ever lived, yet he too on the nature of a servant and "humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2) He knew who he was, he knew who God was, he knew who we were. Yet he chose to place us first.

So today, let's try to enter every interaction with others, thinking about them. When we talk to someone, listen, rather than speaking. Ask yourself what we can do for them. Don't assume that our rights are more important than theirs, or that we are more important.

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)