What Is Good in the Sight of the Lord
(Mic. 6:6~8)
The Magi brought the most precious gifts such as gold, frankincense, and myrrh from the East to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Before Christmas, we should think what we can bring to Jesus.
1. With what shall we come before God?
Israelites committed sins repeatedly, but they just offered formal sacrifice offerings without sincere repentance. However, what God wants us to do is not hypocritical offering process but honest repentance from our hearts. (Ps. 51:17) Even thousands of material offerings are nothing without our hearts. The prophet Micah asked if we would please the Lord with thousands of rams or with ten thousand rivers of oil. Even he said offering his firstborn for his transgression, the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul would not be meaningful without his heart. Physical and visible offering without our broken hearts does not matter. Broken heart with transformed life will be offered to God.
2. What God wants
The prophet Micah told us that God wants us to do three things. Firstly, God wants us to act justly. Acting justly is related to take our responsibilities as fully as possible and protect the rights of the unprivileged. We, Christians, should build a society where all the people are equal and respected before God. Secondly, God wants us love mercy, which means we should put love and mercy in practice for our neighbors. Just coming to church and offering money is not the end of our obligation of Christians. We should become the light and salt in our communities by practicing the love of God. Thirdly, God wants us to walk with God humbly. We should remember we are as what we are thanks to the grace of God. We should walk with God day by day by putting down our stubbornness and arrogance. To sum up, we should live by acting justly, loving mercy and waling with God humbly.