Is there anything more important for a Christian than walking with God?
Many of us love to go walking with our friends. We talk the whole time, nonstop. The walk not only makes the exercise fun, it also deepens our friendship. Jesus went on these kinds of walks with his disciples, and he still likes to walk with us even today. The goal we’re after is an everyday walk of unbroken communion with our Lord.
God had a relationship with Adam and Eve that found them “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8). God wants a walking relationship that involves companionship, dialogue and intimacy. God longs to walk with us, and that is why his arms of grace have been pulling us into a closer walk with him. It is always a pleasant experience to walk with someone we love.
1) Enoch walked with God
And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24).Enoch was the first man to uncover the true delight of walking with God. He found something even Adam didn’t experience. Enoch lived during a unique time in human history, just before God’s judgment of the world by the flood. Against this very dark backdrop was a man who walked with God and was spared death. Enoch is a model of the last-days believer, showing us how to live as we await the Lord’s return. The comparison of walking and the Christian life is used throughout the Bible.
What does it mean to walk with God? It is not merely living by rules and regulations or making daily resolutions that we quickly break. It is much more than that.God said, “If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments, and do them; I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.” (Leviticus 26:3)
The prophet Amos revealed an important truth about what it means to walk with God when he asked, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (Amos; 3:3). The word he used for “together” gives the idea of two people moving in pace together. But it is not about getting God into rhythm with us; it is we getting ourselves into rhythm with Him. That is what it means to walk with God. We read in 1 John 1:7, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another…”
To find that dimension of relationship Enoch required an intense spiritual pursuit, and then when he found it, the Lord took him up to heaven. By taking Enoch up to glory, God wanted to underscore how much HE values and desires a daily walking relationship with His chosen ones.Notice that Enoch walked with God – It was Enoch’s responsibility to walk with God. We will have to walk on the same side of the road He is walking on.
2) Enoch was well-pleasing to God.
Hebrews 11:5 says, “He had this testimony, that he pleased God”. Sometimes we have the mistaken notion that God is very hard to please. Yet God knows our weaknesses and frailties better than anyone, and He is not as hard to please as we might think.
So how do we please God? God is pleased when we do what is right and patiently endure suffering for it, that is called meekness, and it pleases God.(1 Peter 2:20).God is also pleased when children obey their parents (Colossians 3:20); when we worship Him and help others (Hebrews 13:15-16); and when we give financially to the work of the kingdom (Philippians 4:17-18). How was Enoch able to please God? The writer of Hebrews tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (11:6). Enoch could walk with God because he was a man of faith and placed his trust in God.
3) Enoch was a witness for God.
Enoch walked with God, he was well- pleasing to God, and lastly, he was a witness for God. As Enoch walked with God and pleased Him, he had a testimony and a witness. Enoch’s example continues to witness to all generations. We now know that walking with God is an experience, in which every Christian can sense God’s presence and power. Every Christian has a testimony. Before we can effectively witness for God, we must first walk with Him. God picked up Enoch and carried him across to the other shore. May God help us so that we will be a great witness for God.
