Are You Walking with God?

Are You Walking with God?

Good Morning Friends,

 

According to medical authorities, walking is one of the most profitable forms of physical exercise. It stimulates the heart and lungs, strengthens the bones and muscles, increases the blood flow throughout the body, and reportedly contributes to the loss of excess weight. Because of its multiple values, Americans have been encouraged to leave their cars in the garage and participate more frequently in the exercise of walking. I for one love walking the beach and hiking in the mountains. But today’s question explores a different kind of health. Are You Walking with God?

 

Scripture: When Enoch had lived for sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. ²²Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah for three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. ²³Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. ²⁴Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.

 

Genesis 5:21-24 (NRSV)

 

⁵By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and ‘he was not found, because God had taken him.’ For it was attested before he was taken away that ‘he had pleased God.’

 

Hebrews 11:5 (NRSV)

 

¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved,^* with whom I am well pleased.’

 

Matthew 3:17 (NRSV)

 

6As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives^* in him, ⁷rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

 

Colossians 2:6-7 (NRSV)

²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.

 

1 Peter 2:21 (NRSV)

 

Message: The spiritual walk of which the Bible speaks is a dynamic exercise of faith, and the successful completion of this walk is dependent not upon one’s natural or physical resources but upon the strength, leadership, and controlling influence of the Holy Spirit. Walking with God here is a figure of speech about how we conduct ourselves…the manner of life we lead in response to God. Of course, this kind of walking, if with God, makes a good life better. For if we walk with God, not away from or ahead of, we walk in power, for God is power. And so it is that when we walk with God by faith, we will also experience intimate fellowship. We see this pleasing reality clearly in the little we know of the life of Enoch. He is one of but a few men of whom it is said “he walked with God.” He is one of a few who pleased God. He is an example for us of the power of walking in the Spirit… of walking in the footsteps of Christ.

Pray we move in the fullness of a life in Christ. Pray we exercise in faith. Pray that even though we do not always know the way God is leading us that we trust in the destination and leave the details of the journey in His hands as we walk in His steps. Pray we grow, build and abound in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Pray our walk is taking us home. Pray we shall walk with God in everlasting perfection. Pray we are worthy of the Lord. Pray we please God rather than people.

 

Blessings,

 

John Lawson