Do You Have Good Posture?

Micah 6:8 (ESV)
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

As a kid my mother always told me to have good posture: do not slouch, to sit up straight, and to stand up tall when you walk around. We notice good posture in others and see it as a sign of good body placement. Posture is not where you are, but how you are doing it. The prophet Micah tells us three ways that we can have proper posture with God: to act justly, to love mercy, and finally to walk humbly with God. While doing these things won’t make you perfect, or keep you from ever sinning again in your life, doing these thing will make it to where you find yourself better positioned in your walk with God. in Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus establishes exactly what God requires of us as believers. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” With Micah 6:8, the Lord tells us how he wants us to love him and love our neighbor. To act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with him.

Act Justly
First, we are instructed to act justly. We are instructed to do this because our God is a just God who never steps out of his attribute of fairness, and who is never found as impartial. Micah instructs us here to act justly, because in doing so we show the world a heart that is void of partiality toward someone, or favorites. In our sinfulness we often find ourselves having favorites. Whether we had a favorite toy as a kid, a favorite place to eat with our friends as a teen, or even now as an adult a favorite(best) friend. Through favoritism we find ourselves blind to the sin or bad things that are so close to us. We must not only call out the sin of someone distant to us, but also the sin of the person we find dear to us. By acting just, we are showing God’s fairness and show a heart that is void of partiality.

Love Mercy
Secondly, we are instructed to love mercy. This command offered by God in Micah 6:8 to love mercy requires both an inward change and an outward action. To understand mercy, we must first understand the mercy that God the Father displayed for us by sending his Son to take on flesh and take on the cross. Mercy is often seen in scripture in relation to the withholding of punishment that we deserve. God the Father showed us mercy when he sacrificed his son, Christ Jesus, on the cross to pay our sin debt, when the wages of our sin was death. As Christians we should show compassion to one another, and be quick to forgive instead of looking to get even or punish someone for their sin against you.

Walk Humbly
Lastly, in Micah 6:8 we are instructed to walk humbly with our God. This is the step I believe many christians find to be the hardest, as it is very hard for us to be humble. Humility is essential for christians, because it shows our need for total dependence on God. God has given us the gift of life, and without Christ’s setting down of his life on the cross, we would be under judgement for our sin. We have done nothing for our salvation, and it is important for us to have a healthy reminder of this. When we are humble we have a heart ready to work for God, and a heart ready to walk with him. Humbleness should not only come in your spiritual walk, but your physical walk as well. Be slower to jump toward thinking better of yourself, and position your heart with God.

These three steps are not perfect by any means, but living them out will move your heart closer to God, and better position yourself to have not only a healthy walk, but to also have a better life.