Dear Amy,
What is the fourth thing that Micah says the Lord requires from each one of us which is arguably the first in importance?
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?
― Micah 6:8
We’ve already considered act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. Do you see what’s left? With your God.
With your God⸺there’s not even a verb here! But in my view to assimilate “with your God” into “walk humbly” misses something vital and life-changing. Let me explain.
Recall what is the most important thing. The. Most. Important. Thing.
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
― Mark 12:28-31
The first and most important commandment is enough for us to understand “with your God”. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Nothing comes ahead of this.
What does that look like? Jesus shows us.
But now even more the report about [Jesus] went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
― Luke 5:15-16
There was so much work to be done. As people heard what Jesus was doing they flooded in. We know that Jesus ministered to them with grace and kindness, but he never neglected to spend time with his Father.
Spending real quality time with someone is where love starts⸺making that a priority and ensuring that it happens.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
― John 15:9-11
Abide is rather an old fashioned term for stay and stay longer. We’ve considered before that the Apostle John wrote more about love than the other three gospel writers put together. Interestingly three-quarters of the occurrences of the word abide that appear in the Bible are written by John. That’s something to notice!
We must therefore make it an absolute priority to abide with our Heavenly Father and remain with him throughout the day, from when we wake until we sleep again. Every moment that we breathe we must spend in his presence, basking in his wonderful love and growing in our own love for him.
So how can we ensure to do this?
Deciding to get up earlier in the morning to spend unhurried and quality time with the Lord was for me the life-changing turning point when I left the shallows of faith and relatively meagre love for the Lord and started into deeper waters. For sure, other things were happening in my life to cause me to completely cast myself upon the Lord, but I think it was this which opened the way for him to begin his profound work of grace and healing. Abiding in his love throughout the day became possible because of the good start. And just as his mercies are new every morning, so every morning I had to begin again, with determination and great joy⸺exactly the joy that Jesus talked about.
Why would we be coy about this? Is sleep more important than loving the Lord? For me it was an incremental journey, a progression in getting up earlier and then earlier again, and earlier still, and it wasn’t enough until I had created a whole hour at the beginning of each day to immerse myself in the presence of my Heavenly Father, the one who loves me with an unfathomable love, who holds all mysteries and all power, the one that I live for.
All I can say now as I look back on that journey is that it was so profoundly worth it! Praise the Lord!
Abide with the one who loves you, Amy, each morning and throughout the day! 🙏