Extraordinary times call for ordinary measures. When things go as we expect them to go we generally know what we are called to do. When, however, the world outside our control gets out of control we often find ourselves in a panic, unsure of how to respond. The ordinary things we know how to do, but they not longer bring the results we desire.
For decades now I have been laying out theses, affirmations open for debate on how to bring about another Reformation in the church. I have been arguing that things need to change, laying out what some of those things are, and the way they need to change. As I write the church is drowning in a sea of controversy, inanity, worldliness, fearfulness. The world, not surprisingly, is in the same condition.
What do we do now? Now we remember that the most calamitous of times call for the most plain of responses. What we need to do is what we always need to do, the right thing.
The prophet Micah provides for us a concise summary of just what the right thing is:
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“He has shown you O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
That we live in unjust times, in a land of unjust rulers does not change our duty to do justice, but intensifies it. That we live in merciless times, in a land of merciless rulers, does not change our duty to love mercy, but intensifies it. That we live in an age of arrogance, in a land of haughty rulers does not change our duty to walk humbly with our God, but intensifies it.
We don’t have to figure out what is going to happen next. We don’t have to discern who is telling us the truth and who is lying to us. We don’t have to guess the results if we embrace this strategy or that. For He has already told us what He requires of us. When we fail to do so, when we fear that obedience to the Lord will lead to bad consequences for us we call God a liar. We demonstrate that we do not live in fear of Him, but in fear of the world. We demonstrate that we worship the same idols of the world around us.
To do justice we must study justice, which is revealed to us in His Word. The Judge of all the world has given us His law. It, and it alone, defines what is just. To love mercy we must grasp the scope and horror of our own sin, to cherish the great cost that was paid that we might be redeemed. To walk humbly with God, all that takes is submitting to what He says. All three are built from one thing- faith. We believe God when He tells us what is right. We believe God when He tells us we have failed to measure up. We believe God when He shows us His mercy and invites us, as His adopted children, to walk with Him. We believe God, who is true.
Excellent and calming. I had to summarize for my own benefit. “When the world outside our control gets out of control” help me walk in the fruit of self-control.