When
we walk with the Lord
In the light of His Word
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While
we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
(These
words, penned by hymn writer John Henry Sammis, can be found in the Methodist
Hymn Book No 516.)
Nothing
is more reassuring and refreshing to the soul than to have a close walk with
God, not every once in a while, but daily. We know this when it becomes a
lifestyle with us---to the extent that we cannot start a day without Him
because we have put Him at the centre of everything. He controls our every
move; the breath we take and our every heartbeat. That is how close we ought to
be with Him if we are to triumph in this life. “Enoch walked with God; then he
was no more, because God took him away.” (Genesis 5:24)
God
took Enoch away to be with Him. No place can be safer than in God’s company!
Enoch did not taste death, he raptured; he was translated, taken up--for he was
without fault and blameless. He had already qualified for heaven. God was so
pleased with him that He took him to Himself. He called him out of this world
to a place where he could find peace and rest in His presence.
Like
Enoch, the prophet Elijah did not taste death either; he also raptured. He was
hauled in a twinkle of an eye by a chariot with horses in the presence of his
disciple Elisha. “As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a
chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and
Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, ‘My
father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!’ And Elisha saw him no
more.” (2 Kings 2: 11-12)
Another
of the patriarchs that walked with God was Noah. “Noah was a righteous man,
blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9)
At a time when the world was morally corrupt and depraved, Noah stood out in
righteousness like his great grandfather Enoch. Through him, God was going to eradicate
the ‘darkness’ in this world and save humanity through eight righteous men and
women.
“In
the land of Uz, there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless
and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” (Job 1:1) God permitted the devil
to afflict him, but he never denied God. His wife said he should ‘curse God and
die’ but he rather promoted his love for God. “Shall we accept good from God,
and not trouble? In all this Job did not sin in what he said.” (Job 2:10) He
later boasted to his friends; “...when He (God) has tested me I will come forth
as gold.” (Job 23:10)
The
commitment of these devout children of God whose lifestyles were marked by
their level of faith---wrapped with the fear of the Lord---was manifested in
their righteousness and uprightness. That the Bible makes special mention of
them means they excelled among ordinary folks around them to serve as worthy
examples for us to emulate.
Our
walk with God demands total sacrifice, faithfulness and commitment and sticking
to His precepts. It is not through any obligation of any sort, but an act
propelled by love, the love of God, our Father.
Walking
with God becomes a way of life that puts us in right standing with Him---as we
take deliberate and calculated steps. When Abraham was not focussed about God’s
mission for his life, God called him to order. “I am God Almighty; walk before
me and be blameless.” (Genesis 17:1b) Without God, we are void of any sense of
being; life is meaningless on its own. No one invited us into this world, nor
have we come here through our own will.
Nevertheless, we have a purpose we were created to fulfil that no one
else can carry out in our stead. The kind of relationship we knit and nurture
with our Creator will to a great deal determine the quality of life we live.
What
does it mean to walk with God? To walk with God is an undertaking to seek Him,
only then can we find Him. “My heart says of You, ‘Seek His face! Your face
Lord I will seek.’ ” (Psalm 27:8) God can use any vessel with the right heart to
accomplish His will. He alone knows our hearts, because it is He that made us
in the first instance. Let us therefore: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other
way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Start TODAY! “Those who seek
me find me.” (Proverbs 8:17)
