Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He hath showed thee, O man, what is good,

and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Micah 6:6-8, KJV

What is good? What does God expect of us? These are questions that men have wrestled with since the beginning of time, but they needn't, because God has shown us.

He is not looking for sacrifice, though He is clearly pleased with a sacrificial spirit among those who would serve Him. The fact is that the Creator of all that we see doesn't need our cattle or produce or even our children. What He does want, however, is our hearts!

And this is something that is so basic, we can all understand. He wants us to treat one another with justice - that means requiring a certain standard of ourselves and others. When that standard is violated, especially when someone sins against the innocent, then justice is required. It is not optional. This is something we seem to have forgotten in modern times, as we often release the most wicked of men to commit their sins against a new batch of innocent victims. Still, this justice must be tempered with mercy. It needs to be equally applied, however, again so that the innocent are not made to pay for our attempts at being merciful to the guilty.

So justice tempered with mercy, as tricky as it may seem to some, is still one of the things that God has set as a standard - and His standards must be upheld if we are to ever hope to please Him.

And the last part? Walking humbly before God is a simple statement, but one that requires a knowledge of His will to accomplish. The Apostle John tells us that we must "walk in the light" (I John 1:7). The Prophet Hosea tells us that God's ways are right and that "the just shall walk in them" (Hosea 14:9). Jesus, our Savior, tells us that the path to life is narrow and "few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14).

The point is that those who wish to please God will find out the right way to live and then humbly walk within that way. Taking the time to find the right way is not always easy - excellence never is! But for those who do put in the time and effort to find God's way, and who further go on to walk in it? Well, there's will be the kingdom of Heaven! Of course, we do not deserve this, and we have to always keep that in full view (that's the humble part). But again, for those who will do this simple thing, though it will still require effort that is in no ways "simple", a reward awaits.

I don't know about you, but I'm glad that God has made His ways simple enough for even me to understand. Still, there is a caution: Simplicity is sometimes difficult. The question is will we be remaining to do the difficult in order to take advantage of the grace that has so freely been extended to all? Many will bristle at the idea of effort - there's is a twisted understanding of what God's grace is intended to be. But for those willing to do their part, the reward will be far in excess of anything that we could hope, imagine, or deserve. 

He has shown us what is good - will we do it?