Walking With God
What does that mean? How is it to be accomplished? Do the scriptures give us insights to accomplish it? Can just anyone walk with God? These are all good questions, and this phrase is only mentioned twice in scripture of two men that walked in the first 1500 years or so after Adam was created. There is much to say and much to learn if we are to get a grasp of walking with God and having success at doing it. So, as it is said of both Enoch and Noah, I would like to dive in to see what great treasure we can find in our Bibles to see how God shows us to walk with Him in our days here on earth. And Lord willing, we will also look at walking before the Lord, and walking after the Lord.
Life is a walk, it is a continuous one, not an aimless wandering. It is a simple exercise of faith along our pathway. We can and must bring Him nearer and make ourselves more conscious of His nearness to us. Wherever we find ourselves, we may find to have Him with us. Psalm 90:1,"You have been our dwelling place in all generations." Long ago, one mentioned this, "If I can tell how many times today, I have thought about God, I have not thought about Him often enough. " Walking with God refers to someone who is obedient and devoted to the Lord, resulting in His favor. We see this in the lives of Enoch and Noah. Walking with God was the source of their happiness. Psalm 89:15,"How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance." Their happiness was not dependent on their circumstances. The first question and answer in the Heidelberg Catechism is, "What is your only comfort in life and death? That I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ."
When we walk with God, we become more like Him.Prov.13:20,"He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. Christ Himself, God incarnate, of whom Paul says, "Are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."(Col.2:3) Acts 4:13, reiterates this very fact of truth. "Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus." In Hebrews 11:5, the writer gives us some insight as to what Enoch did to show he walked with God. "By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death, and he was not found because God took him up, for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God." Verse 6 follows with the key ingredient to what it was that pleased God. "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."
Enoch and Noah walked with God, not leaving the One they had faith in and communion with, but clinging to Him, and not looking at things that were seen, but at things that were not seen. For faith is a real, substantial foretaste of the banquet of God's promises. Commentator Alexander MacLaren states, "Communion with God is not possible unless we are fighting against our sin and have some measure of holiness. We begin communion with Him, indeed, not by holiness, but by faith. " The Apostle John states in his first epistle, 1 John 1:6, "If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." And also in 1 John 2:6, a stellar verse I believe for our topic, "The one who says he abides in Him, ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. " This week, foster your faith, fix your thoughts, find your fellowship, with the One who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, and Who will also with Him freely give us all things." More to come next week.
Elder Randy Slak
10/05/21
Life is a walk, it is a continuous one, not an aimless wandering. It is a simple exercise of faith along our pathway. We can and must bring Him nearer and make ourselves more conscious of His nearness to us. Wherever we find ourselves, we may find to have Him with us. Psalm 90:1,"You have been our dwelling place in all generations." Long ago, one mentioned this, "If I can tell how many times today, I have thought about God, I have not thought about Him often enough. " Walking with God refers to someone who is obedient and devoted to the Lord, resulting in His favor. We see this in the lives of Enoch and Noah. Walking with God was the source of their happiness. Psalm 89:15,"How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance." Their happiness was not dependent on their circumstances. The first question and answer in the Heidelberg Catechism is, "What is your only comfort in life and death? That I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ."
When we walk with God, we become more like Him.Prov.13:20,"He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. Christ Himself, God incarnate, of whom Paul says, "Are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."(Col.2:3) Acts 4:13, reiterates this very fact of truth. "Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus." In Hebrews 11:5, the writer gives us some insight as to what Enoch did to show he walked with God. "By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death, and he was not found because God took him up, for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God." Verse 6 follows with the key ingredient to what it was that pleased God. "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."
Enoch and Noah walked with God, not leaving the One they had faith in and communion with, but clinging to Him, and not looking at things that were seen, but at things that were not seen. For faith is a real, substantial foretaste of the banquet of God's promises. Commentator Alexander MacLaren states, "Communion with God is not possible unless we are fighting against our sin and have some measure of holiness. We begin communion with Him, indeed, not by holiness, but by faith. " The Apostle John states in his first epistle, 1 John 1:6, "If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." And also in 1 John 2:6, a stellar verse I believe for our topic, "The one who says he abides in Him, ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. " This week, foster your faith, fix your thoughts, find your fellowship, with the One who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, and Who will also with Him freely give us all things." More to come next week.
Elder Randy Slak
10/05/21