Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Walking With God

GENESIS 5:22-24 – Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

THEME OF THE DAY. WALKING WITH GOD. Our Bibles don’t tell us a lot about the man named “Enoch” but what it does say is significant. In just a few words, we have the goal of every Christian clearly revealed – “Enoch walked with God.” And to emphasize the significance of walking with God, the phrase is repeated twice in two verses. It has the same feel of importance as when Jesus says, “Truly, truly” or in the giving of the command to “love one another” three times in two verses (John 13:34-35). We were created to walk with God. We find meaning in life only when walking with God. We are contented in life only when walking with God; and we are to pursue a daily, holy walk with God. That is what salvation is all about. Christ did not save us to leave us walking according to our will. He came to save us so that we would walk with God according to His will in joy, love, power, influence, and glad obedience. So, if Enoch is our model for the Christian life, and he is, what is necessary for us to be characterized in like manner; a person “walking with God?” Three things . . .

First, to walk with God demands we share the same desires. The prophet Amos wrote, “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?” (Amos 3:3). The number one goal and desire of God for His children is that they would walk with Him in holiness; a purity and separation from sin and the world (2 Corinthians 7:1; Ephesians 5:1). Here is where our walk with God either exists or not. We must be on the same page of life with Him and that is the page of holiness. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord so our walk begins with the desire for holiness (Hebrews 12:14).

Next, to walk with God demands we are traveling in the same direction. This means a life of progressive obedience. Not only are we to walk with the Lord having the same desires, but we must put “feet” on the desires which means walking in the same direction. I simply cannot say, “Lord, I desire to walk with You in the path of holiness” and not make daily, self-denying obedience a priority. To walk with the Lord means to obey the Lord. To grow in grace and likeness to Him necessitates a life centered around active obedience to His known commands.

Finally, to walk with God demands we are focused on the same destination. The Apostle Paul exhorts us “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4). We cannot walk with God if our hearts, minds, and wills are set on the things below, not the things above. Our minds must be constantly weaned from the world by the Word in order to walk with Him who is the Word. Worldly Christians are not walking with God. Word-directed Christians walk with God.

What a testimony to be known as Enoch; a believer walking with God. May the Lord open our eyes to see the privilege of doing so and then commit to walk with Him with the same desires, direction, and destination as He has.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for the privilege of walking with You. Help me to do so with joy and intimacy.”

QUOTE: “Walking with God demands we walk in the same direction toward the same destination with the same desires”