“O my people, what have I done to you?What have I done to make you tired of me?Answer me!For I brought you out of Egyptand redeemed you from slavery.I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to help you.Don’t you remember, my people,how King Balak of Moab tried to have you cursedand how Balaam son of Beor blessed you instead?And remember your journey from Acacia Grove to Gilgal,when I, the LORD, did everything I couldto teach you about my faithfulness.”What can we bring to the LORD?Should we bring him burnt offerings?Should we bow before God Most Highwith offerings of yearling calves?Should we offer him thousands of ramsand ten thousand rivers of olive oil?Should we sacrifice our firstborn childrento pay for our sins?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 6:3–8 NLT)
Recently, when I was at the grocery store with my second-grade son, the first cart I selected had a terrible wobble I didn’t initially notice. We were barely ten feet inside the store when I decided I would need to swap it out for a new one. As we went back outside, my son took it upon himself to select the new cart. After he made his choice of a non-wobbly cart we could use, I thanked him for his help. In response, he said, “I’m a good son because I pick good carts.” Quickly, I gently corrected him, saying, “You are a good son regardless of what kind of cart you pick.”
Like my son, too often, we get it into our heads that our identities are rooted in what we do. We try to find our value or worth in relation to other people, especially what we do for them. We are all guilty at some point of defining ourselves by our actions.
When we look at Micah 6, we are so often drawn to verse 8, the famous call “to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Yet even this command – which is itself a correction of bad theology – can pull us in the wrong direction if we don’t focus first on our identity. We don’t do right, love mercy, and walk humbly so we can be adored by God and called his people. We are God’s people first and foremost, which is why God’s proclamation through Micah begins with the phrase “O my people.”
Even though Micah is excoriating the people of Judah on the Lord’s behalf for the way they have treated their God, they are, above everything else, still God’s people. They are not God’s people because they act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with him; rather, these actions and attitudes are expected because they are God’s people.
For those of us who are parents, our chief purpose as guardians of our children is to help them grow into the people God created them to be. We foster their interests, encourage their good habits and discourage the bad, correct them when they err, and, most of all, love them. Even when they are acting out their darkest impulses, they never stop being our children, and we never stop loving them. How much more is this true of God’s view toward us?
What areas of your life do you get your priorities backward, putting your identity in Christ secondary to the things you do for him? Spend at least ten minutes alone reflecting on how deeply God loves you, centering your identity in him.