Have you ever wandered or asked yourself, “What does God really want from me?!” Well, in Micah 6 we find a nation of people complaining about their inability to satisfy God. Their way of asking this question is found in verse 7, “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?” Sarcasm at best, but let’s be honest; we’ve all asked the same question in one shape, form or fashion.

In Matthew 22:36-39 Jesus was asked, which commandment is the greatest and Jesus answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” What God wants is really quite simple: He wants us!! All our service for God must flow from those two commands to love, or it is not real service; it is fleshly effort. And Romans 8:8 says that those who are “in the flesh cannot please God.”

Now then, without going too-too deep and to keep it in proper perspective, God wants us to trust Jesus (Philippians 2:9–11 ), He wants us to, “become conformed to the imagine of His son” (Romans 8:29), He wants us to be obedient (First Peter 1:14–15 ), He wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), and when we diligently go to Him for ‘the things we want’, He wants us to come to Him faithful and believing (Hebrews 11:6).

Unfortunately, we have the tendency to overthink things in life which makes living life unnecessarily more difficult than it needs to be. That’s one of the reasons why Solomon encouraged us not to lean on our own understanding, but to acknowledge God so that He can direct our paths (Proverbs 3:6). In other words, God wants us to acknowledge Him and trust Him as our Leader (aka) Lord and Savior.

In Micah 6:8, the prophet responded to Israel’s snide and irreverent question mentioned in verse 7. He said, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” God’s desire for us is very simple. As I mentioned above, people complicate things, tacking on rules and man-made laws that ensues frustration and kill the joy in following Christ (2 Corinthians 3:6). From God’s perspective the status of our relationship with Him is never on ‘complicated’!!!

God wants us to love Him with all our hearts and let our obedience stem from a heartfelt desire to be pleasing in His sight. In I Samuel 15, God appointed a time ‘to settle accounts’ with the nation of Amalek for opposing Israel when they came from Egypt (V2) and He gave freshly anointed King Saul specific instructions, but he failed to do exactly what God commanded. Of course, Saul doesn’t see it that way and overthinks the entire situation. In the latter he does what he thinks God wants in lieu of doing want commanded him to do. He decided to offer God sacrifices, when God was testing his obedience and Samuel’s classic reply to Saul’s unfortunate decision confirms the principle of this message. In verse 22 he said, “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.”

God wants from us what we need from Him love, trust, and faithfulness!