Living in the Spirit
July 1, 2015

Scripture Reading: Psalm 48

We ponder your steadfast love, O God,
   in the midst of your temple. Your name,
O God, like your praise,
   reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with victory.
Let Mount Zion be glad, let the towns of Judah rejoice
   because of your judgments. –Psalm 48:9-11

God is the establisher of justice. We spend our entire lives dedicated to living into God’s justice. Our calling as people of God is not to oversee God’s judgments or even to enforce it. Our calling is to live justly ourselves and through our life’s work to draw others who do not know God to God. Yet we seem to spend a lot of energy on one hand trying to test the edges of justice ourselves while on the other hand defining our own understanding of justice for others. Jesus Christ proposed a radically different way of being. One in which we stayed as centered as possible in God’s justice and live God’s love in relationship with others.

Micah 6:8 tells us the other parts of our calling including showing mercy and walking humbly with God. Anytime we are dealing in the call of justice we must remember we are also called to mercy and humility.

Prayer: God of Love, enable us to take in your justice not define our own and help us to live justly with mercy and humility. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.