With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:6-8)

 

This passage in Micah reminds me of another passage in 1 Samuel 15:22: But Samuel replied: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

 

To obey God is the way of the pilgrim.  We can’t please God or even get to know Him unless we do as He tells us to do.  In order to get to that place we have to listen to His voice.  We have to learn to hear His voice.  We must seek Him with all of our hearts because when we find Him, He is the pearl of great price.

 

There is nothing more that a father wants than his children to love him and seek him out.  One morning I was getting into my car and my son Joseph was waving good-bye in the window.  This in itself was enough to warm my heart, but as I got into my car I noticed the front door of my house opened up.  My wife was standing there wanting me to lower my car window so that she could speak to me.

 

She told me that Joseph wanted me to come to the door so that he could give me a hug.  He was standing in the doorway with his pajamas on and no socks on his feet.  He was determined that he was going to hug his dad.

 

He told me to come quickly because he was cold.  There was snow and ice all over the ground.  He wasn’t going to close that door until he got his hug, so I got out of the car and went to him and hugged him.  It was one of the best hugs I have ever received from one of my children.

 

My experience with my heavenly Father is much the same way.  The prophet noted God saying, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13).  And revelation 3:20 says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

 

That is the heart of God. He wants you and not the things that you can sacrifice to Him.  You can give 10% of your money to the church, prophesy over your neighbor, heal the sick and cast out devils, but if you do not know God you might still be lost.

 

Our sacrifices are not as important as humbling ourselves before God and His voice.  Our deepest longings must be for Him and Him alone.  God knows our hearts.  He knows that we can be deceitful.  There are times that I am convinced that I am acting in God’s interest and it turns out that it was in my own.  I could not hide this from God.

 

I need my God in my heart so that I might have the chance to learn to be merciful, that I might learn to love and act in a just manner with the world around me.   In order to accomplish this I must seek Him till I find Him.

 

I love Christian hearts that are humble.  I love when I meet a great man or woman of God and they reflect the humility of a true saint.  I call out to God to make me the same.  I am not yet perfected in this manner.  There is still some stench of pride within me.  But I keep pursuing God and doing what He tells me to do.  I know one day I will be just like Jesus.  It is my only pursuit.