“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8)
I remember attending an Easter retreat in which a song was sung by a choir and I fell in love with the song. Not just for the melody but most especially for the wordings. I can’t remember the exact wordings but it went something like this:
“Walk with the Lord,
It means to journey with him,
Walk in his words…
If you really want to get to heaven
just walk walk walk with the Lord.”
That sums up the importance of walking with God. If you want to get to heaven just walk with him. You won’t miss heaven if you do so. We look at life as something in which you need to do so much to have a bright hope for eternity but the man of God says “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8) summing all of God’s demands to just three. To experience the manifest presence of God, we must walk with him.
Walking with God is living one’s life with full consciousness of him. You can’t say you are walking with someone if you are not conscious of him. He’ll turn this way and you’ll go straight. If you walk with somebody you must be conscious of the person’s movements and know where he is going to next. To know this may mean you are just watching him and following him, or you know what influences his decisions for example you know he is going to the restaurant just by the bend therefore you know he’ll take the right at the next junction. So, walking with God is being sensitive to God’s injunctions and being close to his heart. A little loss of concentration and he may be out of sight. “I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.” (Song of Solomon 5:6). Therefore I suppose the best and most essential occupation of a person willing to live a good life and be victorious in death is walking with God.
—Agreeing With God—
“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3)
Of necessity, to walk with somebody, you must be agreed together. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3), therefore walking with God is living ones life in agreement with God. But does God wishes to agree with us? Does the maker of the universe have time for you and for me?
“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken… Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:2, 18). God seeks that we should agree with him. He wants us to make his priorities our priorities, he wants us to have desires that are in consonance with his’. He wants us to be in every way, be it thought, words, and conducts, like him. To walk with God, we must be agreed with him. To be agreed with him is to fashion our lives after his own pattern. His pattern is that which is revealed in his word. His word is that which we have, The Holy Bible.
—Benefits Of Living A God Guided Life—
“Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” (Psalm 73:23 – 24)
Many times, people try to know what their purpose in life is. This curiosity to know the future mixed with the fear of not living a purposeful life if the future is not known sees a lot of people reading horoscopes, and consulting magicians, psychics, star gazers etc. Such makes me laugh. I am sorry but I laugh at things I shouldn’t laugh at at times for this is pitiful thing. No one can live a purposeful life with these. When I was very young and used to have interest in horoscope, it never said anything specific that happened after I read it, perhaps because we were Christians and such demonic manipulations that make these look true could not work. But I knew one person who at least once had the horoscope narrate everything that would happen to him the next day and at the close of the day everything happened just exactly. Quite amazing. But all that this horoscope ever said was about a girl friend and girlfriend and a girlfriend. Today however, he is married to not that girlfriend but to someone entirely different. How purposeful is that?
Living a purposeful life can’t be achieved by knowing the future but by walking with God. Like that song I heard that goes “walk with the Lord, it means to journey with, walk/trust in his word,… If you really want to get to heaven just walk walk walk with the Lord.” There in, dear friends lies the answer, “walk with the Lord.” Younger people will often ask “how do I know God’s purpose for me?” But must we know what our purpose is before we can live it? No. All we need to do is to walk with God and everything else will sort out itself. When you walk with God, in the long run, you’d look back at your life and be glad at how purposeful everything has been. Trying to know what tomorrow holds is often a sign of distrust in God. We can’t be sure that he will fulfil something great in our lives, so we want to know what is going to happen in future so that if it is not good, we can seek to avoid it. Now, how can a loving God not have a good purpose for us? Sometimes it is a sign of anxiousness but let us not allow this be part of us. Christ said “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6:34). Christ here talked about trusting God and called those who didn’t “ye of little faith.” We needn’t know tomorrow, in fact we shouldn’t care about it so much but we need to walk with him who holds tomorrow in absolute trust.
—Setting A Straight Road For The Lame Feet—
“And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.” (Hebrews 12:13)
One of the biggest weaknesses of man is his tendency of always thinking he is stronger than he truly is. If I talk about the weak, perhaps, ninety nine percent will assume they didn’t fit in that description. But we are told here that we should set straight paths for our feet. I suppose that this straight path which we should set for ourselves includes and is not limited to setting a specific amount of time we must pray to God in a day and stick dutifully to it. Perhaps we may set it as a duty to pray a minimum of one hour everyday and set it as a duty to read at least two chapters of the Bible systematically. Setting a goal for ourselves is very essential especially in our weak state. That is why it says “lest that which is lame be turned out of the way.” When do such, that which is lame will be healed, and we’ll become strong where we once were weak.
A man who is a thorough pray-er who’s feet is not lame may not need to set such goals for he’ll be in the habit of exceeding it. If we were men like those who once they are on their knees in prayers would not be aware when they have spent four hours in God’s presence, we won’t need so much of setting of goals. But when we are weak and in the habit of dozing off while praying or we just pray a little and not feel like continuing, we ought to set our goals to what will profit us. If we don’t do that and assume we could just pray as the spirit leads, we would see ourselves, by slow degrees, stop praying. We should make it a habit of singing several hymns daily and learning new ones as often as we can. If we can’t read sufficient amount of the Bible to edify us daily, we ought to set goals too, else we would also stop reading the Bible. In this state we could assume that that which was lame is turned out of the way. So in our walk with God let us not think we are so strong but be cautious enough not to allow ourselves turn away from God due to negligence. May God help us. Amen.
By: Moses Ayomikun Oladipupo
Cover Photo From: goforwardwithfaith.blogspot.in
