“With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take pleasure in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give Him my firstborn for my wrongdoings, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, mortal one, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”—Micah 6:6–8 (NASB)

As in many households, cooking is a big deal in ours. Not just cooking, but baking—the kind that makes you forget the gym membership you swore you’d use. My wife is from a small rural town outside Tallahassee, FL, and let me tell you, there ain’t no cooking like country cooking. The desserts alone could convince someone to trade Wi-Fi for biscuits, cornbread, and butter.

Over the years, we’ve enjoyed a lineup of classics: homemade apple pies, pineapple upside-down cake, carrot cake, three-tiered three-flavored cakes, and the crown jewel, Grandma’s old-fashioned pound cake. That cake has such a reputation it probably deserves its own entry on Ancestry.com.

My daughter, 11 at the time, had caught the baking bug. With my wife’s blessing (and supervision from a safe distance), she set out on the boldest mission of her young career: baking Grandma’s pound cake with lemon icing, all by herself.

With her pink and yellow stripped princess apron on, she opened Grandma’s handwritten recipe like a treasure map. What followed was pure chaos. Eggshells broke into the batter. Bowls of water tipped over like Noah’s flood. The mixer launched a flour cloud so thick it resembled the glory cloud that led Israel in Exodus. By the end, our kitchen looked less like a Food Network set and more like a Betty Crocker crime scene.

Hours later, something resembling pound cake emerged. As any proud parent would, I celebrated my daughter as if she had won America’s Got Talent. I took a bite and immediately realized: something was missing. No sugar. No richness. No sweetness. It looked like Grandma’s cake, smelled like Grandma’s cake, but it didn’t taste like it. Pound cake in theory, pound fake in reality.

And isn’t that like our worship sometimes? We can sing songs, lift hands, and look holy, but if love for our neighbor is missing, the sweetness God desires is gone. Micah 6:6–8 reminds us that God doesn’t want mere ritual; He wants worship that blends justice, mercy, and humility.

Act justly: Justice is love served fairly, no one gets a bigger slice just because of who they are. Fairness matters to God.

Love mercy: Mercy is action. It’s feeding the hungry and forgiving the offender, even if it costs you your reputation. Mercy matters most when it’s messy.

Walk humbly: Humility is the sugar in the pound cake of worship. Without it, everything else tastes bland.

True worship isn’t just what happens on Sunday morning, it’s how we live when we meet people who don’t look, think, pray, or even vote like us. God desires worship that’s bold, sweet, and alive, vertical toward Him and horizontal in compassion toward others. That’s the slice of worship God craves.

Pause: Ask yourself: 

1. Where in my life does my “pound cake worship” look the part but lack the sweetness of compassion? 
2. Who can I show justice, mercy, or humility toward this week, especially if they’re different from me?

Practice: This week, take Micah 6:8 off the page and into your schedule. Start small but make it intentional:

Do justice by standing up for someone being overlooked or mistreated. Maybe that’s defending a coworker, helping a struggling single parent, or giving to someone in need instead of scrolling past.Love mercy by choosing forgiveness where bitterness wants to take root. Show undeserved kindness to someone who’s wounded you, just as Christ has done for you.

Walk humbly by asking God to expose pride in your heart and replace it with a posture of gratitude and dependence. Let your prayers this week begin with listening more than speaking.

Then, at the end of each day, reflect: Did my worship have the sweetness of love today? Or was something missing from the recipe?

Pray: Our Father, who is exalted above the heavens, the holy God of all the heavens and earth, we come before You. Thank You, Father, for who You are. Thank You that You’re good and upright. You, O Lord, instruct sinners in Your ways. Thank You for Your Son, Jesus, who showed us the way, and for Your Holy Spirit who brings His Word to remembrance. Thank You that Jesus was the one pierced for our transgressions, pouring out His blood and water on our behalf. Lord, You have told us what’s good and what You require. Give us hearts to obey Your Word. Form in us a love that causes us to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk before You in humility. God, may we be a people known for uprightness and integrity, revealed in our actions. May we always be a people who use our authority to act justly. Lord, You modeled what it means to love mercy by laying down Your life for Your sheep. May we long for opportunities to show mercy to our brothers and sisters. Give us hearts that rejoice when mercy is extended, building on the foundation of mercy by which we have been saved. May the way we extend mercy to one another bring us into the fulfillment of John 17—that we may be one in You. Father, clothe us in humility. May we always seek Your way and Your will in everything we do. Remind us of the fragility of our frame, for every good thing we are is because You made us. We thank You for making us new again. May we walk in the revelation of who we are, founded on what You, Father, have done. Lord, we repent for the times we’ve praised You with our mouths but behaved like the world—acting unjustly, loving judgment, and walking in pride before You and man. Help us to forgive others who have done the same. Heal, Lord, any wounds we’ve incurred and those we’ve inflicted through our disobedience to Your Word. Empower us by Your Spirit to forsake the way of man in our hearts and to seek Your way. God, thank You that Jesus always acted justly, that He loved mercy unto death, and that He modeled a life of utter dependence on You. Lord, form in us the heart of Jesus, that we may walk in His way. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.