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What Does God Want from Me?
What Does God Want from Me?
Have you ever asked this question? I mean really questioned what it is that God really wants from you?
Sometimes we might ask this question in reverence. Other times in despair. Maybe even in frustration. It’s a good question – one that needs to be asked, and one that God himself has answered for us plainly in Micah 6:1-8.
God is in court against his people. He has confronted them about their sin, and now he is challenging his people to plead their own case against him. Israel must testify – what do they have to say for their rebellion? With what wrong will they charge God, that they have been unfaithful to him? Has he withheld anything from them or burdened them with too much to bear?
These are humbling questions. No one in their proper mind would dare to charge God with any wrong, especially when he had done so much for them (vv. 4-5)!
But is God asking these questions because he wants repayment of some kind? Does he want more sacrifices, more Bible studies, more worship assemblies? No – all the sacrifices in the world wouldn’t fulfill what God really wants from his people. Notice: the value of the sacrifices progressively increase in vv. 6-7, from the ordinary (a single burnt offering) to the unspeakable (offering your firstborn child). God doesn’t need anything from us, nor should we think sacrifices along make us pleasing to him (Ps. 50:7-15).
What, then, does God really want from us? Three things that we missing in Israel – are they missing in us?
Justice – Micah accused the kings, priests, and prophets for taking advantage of the poor and needy; bribery, illegal acquisition of property, dishonest business deals, cheating widows and depriving orphans of the care they needed. What God wanted was for them to repent of their unjust ways and start helping those around them. Today, if we’re in a position to help someone, we become responsible for doing just that – that’s one lesson we learn from the Good Samaritan Parable (Luke 10:30-37).
Faithfulness – the way we show love for God is not measured by how many sacrifices we offer (songs we sing, prayers we offer, Bible readings we do), but by how loyal we are to the covenant we’ve made with God. Do we keep his commands when no one is looking? Do we love the things God loves, and hate the things God hates?
Obedience – we rightly emphasize obedience in every aspect of our service to God, but “walking humbly with God” isn’t a mindless, rote, check-box kind of obedience. It is a lifetime of God-honoring service which flows from a grateful and reverent heart. God doesn’t just want your hands and feet – he wants YOU, ALL of YOU, and most of all, YOUR HEART!
This was King Saul’s greatest flaw – failure to grasp what God really wanted. Not sheep and cows offered on an altar, but a humble, submissive heart. “Does the LORD take pleasure in burn offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD?” (1 Sam. 13:22-23). So, God rejected him as king How grave the danger is that we will deceive ourselves into thinking, “I’m doing all the right things – surely, God is pleased with me!” when our hearts are not really with him. If so, he will surely reject us from being his children.
These words are comforting words, especially when we feel we can never do enough to earn God’s favor. We can’t ever merit our salvation, but God then again doesn’t want us to try to earn anything, only to walk humbly and obediently with him.
These words are challenging words. They dig deeper into our hearts than we often feel comfortable with. Am I really giving God my all? Am I really practicing justice and faithful love?
