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BIBLICAL REFLECTIONS:FOR A CLOSER WALK WITH GOD

Mar 22, 2017, 1:08 PM | Article By: Galandou Gorre-Ndiaye

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)