Walk Humbly with God
Micah 6:8 He has told you, O mortal, 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?
I was at a function recently and I ran into a retired businessman, a man whom I’d met one time before. Now this man, over his career, had been extremely successful. He’d been the chairman of the boards of some very large public companies. He would often appear in the business pages of the newspapers, being reported on with great respect.
By any measure, he had been very successful and, you’d have to imagine, was pretty wealthy by this time, in his early seventies.
Now, he and I happened to pull up in our cars outside the function at the same time. We parked next to one another. And the first thing that struck me was the modest vehicle he was driving. Certainly not one of those cars that screamed “success” at you. And as I chatted with him during the course of the evening, one thing stood out for me.
His great humility. You don’t often hear those two words in the one sentence – greatness and humility. But actually, and this becomes pretty obvious when you think about it, true greatness only comes to those who are humble. Or put it the other way around, humility is an essential ingredient, perhaps the essential ingredient, to greatness.
I think sometimes we over-complicate life. We try to imagine what success looks like and we think we have to jump through this hoop and that one, impress this person and that one over there, dress like this, speak like that, be seen, be admired … in fact what I see when I look around is a lot of people trying to please one another.
So, let’s take it back to basics. Let’s look at something truly simple that leads to true greatness:
He has told you, O mortal, 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)
Right there is a path to greatness – and let’s face it, your greatness is a legacy that lives in other people’s hearts. Greatness is how other people perceive you.
Firstly do justice. Be honest and decent. Stand up for those who are in a difficult place. Be the one that other people can trust and rely on. Secondly, love kindness. Don’t you love being around people who are kind to you? You want to be around them. You love them, because first they showed kindness to you. Love kindness.
And thirdly, perhaps most importantly, walk humbly with your God. Don’t seek the glory or the limelight. Don’t try to be better than anyone else. Don’t forsake God and go your own way. Just walk humbly with your God.
That’s what godly greatness looks like. Justice, kindness, humility. That’s the greatness that’s ready and waiting for you.
And that’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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