Walking with God specifically means . . .

 

Last night I dreamed of helping another Christian who had taken in several refugee families. She was overwhelmed so for the day I took one of those families who had a rambunctious child. It was a long dream as we drove all over the city and did several things.

This morning, the little prayer book that my son gave me last Christmas was about the longing to help needy people. It gave several specific examples of doing that, such as giving my sandwich to a homeless person or visiting someone who is sick or in prison.

This set me up for today’s devotional entitled, “Walking with God includes reconciliation, obedience from the heart, and ongoing faith” and based on the verse, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” (Genesis 5:24)

MacArthur generalized walking with God to being a reference for my manner of life. He quotes as an example:

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; (Colossians 1:9–10)

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. (Ephesians 4:17)

Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1–2)

These are great verses, yet they are general, basic descriptions of attitudes helpful to discern actions yet not specific. My mind is continually full of good ideas. I even dream them, and that little prayer book adds more suggestions. No day is long enough to do all that comes to mind.

Even MacArthur’s examples implied from Enoch’s walk are general, such as reconciliation from: “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?” (Amos 3:3) From this, Enoch was obviously reconciled with God through faith.

The second example is: “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.” (2 John 6) MacArthur says walking with God is obedience, again a broad term and too general to help with deciding what specific actions God wants from me.

The third example is the same: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving . . . . for we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 2:6-7; 5:7)

While these describe attitudes and are helpful, they do not tell me if walking with God on any given day means visiting DD in the hospital, or staying home and finishing a quilt for SW, a needy refugee. Do I invite the neighbors for dessert or call on a lonely widow?

For me, walking with God is about an intimate relationship where I hear His whispers directing me, feel the tug of His hand in specific directions, and just know that He wants me to do this or that. Of course, the right attitude needs to be in place but there is a subjective side to all this and it cannot be given in a sermon or defined by a devotional.

PRAY: Jesus, I am so thankful that You reconciled me to yourself and gave me faith to take hold of Your hand. I praise You also for helping me love others as You love them. Most of all, I’m thankful that You speak to me by Your Spirit so that I can know exactly what my minutes, hours, days should look like and the insight to realize when I have let go of Your hand and taken another path. Also, I’m glad that when I do stray, Your voice calls me back beside You, again holding Your hand and walking with You.

PONDER: Paul wrote “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16) This means recognizing the flesh and the motivations of my heart. The best and perhaps the only way to do that is through a constant habit of reading and studying. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12) which is another gift from Him!

 

 

To be like Enoch . . .

Enoch was the father of the oldest man who ever lived, Methuselah, but that was not his most distinguishing characteristic. The Old Testament says, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” (Genesis 5:24)

The New Testament explains this about his life and that he did not die like ordinary people . . .

“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:5–6).

The comments in today’s devotional reading explain that Enoch was not special in his conduct, personality, or anything else except his faith. He believed in the Lord and his faith gave God pleasure.

Walking with God is about faith, not about being sinless, yet faith does produce a changed life. For instance, Colossians 3:1-17 tells me that a person of faith will have an eternal mindset because I have died to this world and my life is now hidden in Christ. Because of that, I’m to put away all that is sinful and worldly, things like impurity, covetousness, anger, malice, lying and slander. Instead, I’m to be compassionate, kind, humble, patient, and forgiving. I’m to love others as the Lord has loved me, and let His peace rule my mind and be thankful. I’m to let His Word richly fill my heart so that I might bless others, doing all things in the name of the Lord Jesus.

It is not that this life is ‘my’ life, but it is the life of Christ — lived out in those who walk by faith, and this faith is the root of such a life. This is why God is pleased with faith.

Faith puts everyone on the same level because no matter who has it, all please God, from Enoch, to Noah, to the dying thief, to my mother, to me. Our lives may be distinctive in other ways, but by faith, those who believe in Jesus all please God the only way any fallen sinner can please God — by faith in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am sanctified by faith, justified by faith, and grow in grace as I grow in faith. My Christian life began in the Spirit and I am not made perfect by my own efforts, because no one can start by faith then finish by keeping the law. To walk with God is to continue as I started — by faith in Christ.

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6–7)

Jesus, as You blessed me yesterday with the simple Gospel, You bless me again today with the truth about a simple faith. Trusting You is all that I need to walk with You. Faith roots my life in your life, builds me up and securely settles me — just as You have taught me. And because I am trusting You, I am also filled with joyful thanksgiving!

Like a Charlie Brown tree

Every Christmas some artist in the cartoon world honors Charlie Brown’s spindly Christmas tree. It shows up as a humorous yet needed reminder that beauty is often only in the eyes of the beholder.

When the world was new and people began to fill it, the sin of Adam and Eve spread to every living soul. As the population increased, so did human rebellion against God.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:5–8)

The grief of God over sin isn’t a popular topic. It isn’t easy to explain either. We are so accustomed to the way that we are, that we don’t realize the seriousness of our sinful rebellion against our Creator. Parents who love and want the best for their children may get an inkling of this grief if their offspring make dreadful choices and ruin their lives. Instead of the pride and the joy of seeing them grow into fine men and women, there is sorrow over the loss of potential, sometimes even the loss of life.

God felt that sorrow to the uttermost. He regretted His creation and decided to do something about it. He is criticized for this decision, but who would criticize a parent sorrowing over the birth of a wayward child? Besides, God is holy. For Him, sin is worse than muck on a rose or pollution in a crystal stream. Unlike us, He cannot bear it.

Yet something in His great heart would not give up entirely. He looked down on humanity and selected one man whom He would bestow favor. Noah was singled out, not because God looked for and found something special about this man (all have sinned), but because God decided that He would selvedge someone out of the chaos that humanity had become. Noah was picked.

This choice is about grace. God had every right (and every reason) to wipe out the human race and start over. From Adam to Noah, none of them were righteous, no, not one. Genesis 5:24 says that Enoch walked with God, and that he was not found, for God took him, indicating some sort of unusual death or translation into eternity, but this also was by God’s grace. No one deserved His favor then, nor does anyone earn or deserve it now.

We are like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, barren and stripped of anything that is beautiful in the sight of God. We cannot earn His favor. Yet God is full of grace and mercy. He cannot and will not give up entirely, not that we deserve it, but that this is how God is — tender-hearted toward the mean and dejected, gracious toward the bent and twisted, willing to take home that which others pass over and reject.

Salvation isn’t about our merit. It is about the goodness of God’s heart.