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“Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.” Hebrews 5:8
One of the lies Satan has been feeding us for years is that God is an angry, vindictive God who wants to destroy us. Nothing is farther from the truth. God is holy to be sure, and because he is holy he can’t allow sin to be in his children.
God is also the loving parent. A loving parent guides their children on the right path. When they stray, they are redirected. As they grow older, they choose the way that was shown them.
But growing is hard. We make bad choices. Friends abandon us. Dreams are crushed. What we hope for vanishes. But it’s the painful things in life that make us strong.
Even Jesus learned to obey through the power of the same Holy Spirit that indwells each of us as his followers.
When you encounter difficulty ask your Heavenly Father to give you wisdom. Is this a redirection or is this a pruning? Both are painful. One requires action on your part (confession/repentance), the other requires action on God’s part ( the vine dresser in John 15). During pruning our part is to rest knowing his way is best.
Your Heavenly Father loves you unconditionally and with no limit. What you are going through may not be understood now, but it is not without purpose and is under the watchful eye of a loving parent.
“No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
One of the most difficult things for any of us to do, is to meet the expectations of some people. Hard as we try some people are impossible to please. For some of us we have spent our entire lives trying to please others with an end result of being displeased with ourselves.
Trying to meet the expectations of other people, is the main reason that many of us lose our identity. We get so caught up in who we think we are supposed to be, that we forget who we are.
The expectations of others and ourselves are impossible to meet. Surprisingly, the expectations God has for us are relatively simple!
In this verse, God has three things of us. First of all to do what is right. Doing right means that we simply follow the life God has for us as exemplified by Jesus in the Bible.
Secondly, he asks us to love mercy. To love mercy means we realize the mercy he has for us and out of gratitude extend that mercy to other people.
Lastly, he asks us to walk humbly with him. To walk humbly with God simply means we realize that without him we are nothing, and with him, we are everything.
The easiest part about the expectations that God has for us, is that he has given us his Holy Spirit to guide us and encourage us and empower us to live for him.
He doesn’t expect us to be perfect! He simply expects us and asks us to live in his word and trust his ways.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 