What does it mean to "walk humbly with my God?"

July 17, 2013: Please “Share” this link to a new Precious Prodigal Blog Post: http://wp.me/p1D8dQ-bD

Micah 6:8 “…what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Of the three things Micah tells us that God requires of us, “walking humbly with God” is the most simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. In the Hebrew that term, “walk humbly,” means to seek with care or constantly look to. It means allowing yourself to be led by or advised by God. It means that, no matter how difficult the situation is or how little I can understand, I still look to God and trust that He knows what He’s doing. That’s not easy to do when you love a prodigal, is it?

I was recently with a group of friends, and we were discussing the difference between free will and self-will. As I was reading Micah 6:8 again this morning, I remembered that discussion. When God created us, He gave us the freedom of choice…a free will. The reason He did that is because He wants us to love Him, to fellowship with Him, to serve Him out of a heart of love and the exercise of our free will.

I will never understand why my God, who is complete in Himself and perfect, wanted to fellowship with someone as broken and imperfect as I am, but He did and He does. And nothing is going to make that brokenness and imperfection show up like being involved with a prodigal. The latest catastrophe happens, and I’m desperate to fix whatever’s broken, whether the catastrophe is a situation or a relationship or the prodigal himself. I’ve forgotten about free will and God’s will, and I’m slap in the middle of self-will.

A mother recently sent me a message about one of my blog posts, and she was honestly confused. She said she didn’t understand how I could suggest we take your hands off and stop interfering in what God is trying to do in our prodigal’s life. She told me as long as she had breath and could lift her hands, she was going to try to “fix” what was broken. Hey, I understand. If it’s hard for me to let God work in my life, it’s much harder for me to take my hands off and let God deal with my prodigal. And it’s even more difficult to keep my eyes on God and trust that He is going to work things out in the best possible way. That’s especially hard when everything within me is screaming, “This can’t possibly be God’s will!”

However, that’s the exact time we need to keep our spiritual eyes open to see and our spiritual ears open to hear what God is saying to us. You see, God is either everything, or He is nothing. If He’s nothing, we might as well throw in the towel and give up because there is no hope for us, and there is no hope for our prodigal. But if He’s everything, then shouldn’t we look to Him for the answers? Shouldn’t we rest in Him and trust that He’s working things out according to His will? Shouldn’t we stop hitting the panic button and take our hands of the situation, the prodigal, and the outcome?

Challenge for Today: Can you, just for today, choose to exercise your free will to seek God’s will?