"Walking with God" is a theme that is woven through the Scriptures. It describes not merely the physical act of walking, but our conduct before God our motives and our attitudes. Over 200 verses in the Bible refer to the concept of walking with God.
Walking is an ideal time for prayer. Walking to morning Mass or to a church service can be considered as going on a pilgrimage -- to a meeting with our Lord in the Church, or with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
The majesty of the physical world around us uplifts our hearts and minds in prayer: the glory of the stars, the magnificence of a sunrise or sunset, the beauty of a rainbow, the splendor of flowers.
One day when St. Paul was walking in the monastery garden, the flowers spoke to him so loudly of God's beauty that he gently tapped them with his cane and cried out, "Be silent!"
"I See His Blood . . ."
That incident is a reminder of Joseph M. Plunkett's lovely poem "I See His Blood Upon the Rose":
"I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.
I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice -- and carven by his power,
Rocks are his written words. All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea;
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree."
If we care to start this relational walk God is going to make Himself available each day we knock the door of heaven. This has been demonstrated before in the times of the Old Testament, beginning with Enoch down through to the prophets. Let us begin with the case of Enoch and see how that relatioship developed.
Genesis 5: 21 -24 21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: 22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: 24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
How close was Enoch to his creator? very very close I would say, and because they were that close they saw each other for three hundred and sixty-five years on a daily basis until they could be separated no more and God invited Enoch to His home and Enoch decided to stay for good. Enoch was taken because he lost touch with this world and its systems, he had become a stranger to what others were doing and more at home with the things of God. And that is what made it much easier for God to request of His friend to go and live with him for ever.
A poem by William Cowper
Gen: 24Oh! for a closer walk with GOD,
A calm and heav'nly frame;
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!
Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the LORD?
Where is the soul-refreshing view
Of JESUS, and his word?
What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd
How sweet their mem'ry still!
But they have left an aching void,
The world can never fill.
Return, O holy Dove, return,
Sweet messenger of rest;
I hate the sins that made thee mourn,
And drove thee from my breast.
The dearest idol I have known,
Whate'er that idol be;
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee.
So shall my walk be close with GOD,
Calm and serene my frame;
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads me to the Lamb.
Walking with God not only implies, that the prevailing power of the enmity of a man's heart be taken away, but also that a person is actually reconciled to God the Father, in and through the all-sufficient righteousness and atonement of his dear Son. `Can two walk together,
Amos 3:3 unless they are agreed?' Jesus is our peace as well as our peace-maker. When we are justified by faith in Christ, then, but not till then, we have peace with God; and consequently cannot be said till then to walk with him, walking with a person being a sign and token that we are friends to that person, or at least, though we have been at variance, yet that now we are reconciled and become friends again. This is the great errand that gospel ministers are sent out upon.
Walking with God implies a settled abiding communion and fellowship with God, or what in scripture is called,
The Holy Ghost dwelling in us. This is what our Lord promised when he told his disciples that 'the Holy Spirit would be in and with them'; not to be like wayfaring man, to say only for a night, but to reside and make his abode in their hearts. This, I am apt to believe, is what the apostle John would have us understand, when he talks of a person abiding in him, in Christ, and walking as he himself also walked. And this is what is particularly meant in the words of our text.
Walking, in the very first idea of the word, seems to suppose a progressive motion. A person that walks, though he move slowly, yet he goes forward, and does not continue in one place. And so it is with those that walk with God. In the language of the apostle Paul, `they pass from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord'. Indeed, in one sense, the divine life admits of neither increase nor decrease. When a soul is born of God, to all intents and purposes he is a child of God. And so it is that we hear of babes, young men, and fathers in Christ. And upon this account it is that the apostle exhorts Timothy, "to let his progress be made known to all men". And what is here required of Timothy in particular, by St. Peter is enjoined on all Christians in general. `But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ'. For the new creature increases in spiritual stature, and though a person can but be a new creature, yet there are some that are more conformed to the divine image than others, and will after death be admitted to a greater degree of blessedness. For want of observing this distinction, even some gracious souls, that have better hearts than heads
In order to walk closely with God, his children must not only watch the motions of God's providence without them, but the motions also of his blessed Spirit in their hearts. As many as are the sons of God, are led by the Spirit of God, and give up themselves to be guided by the Holy Ghost, as a little child gives its hand to be led by a nurse or parent. It is no doubt in this sense that we are to be converted, and become like little children. And though it is the quintessence of enthusiasm, to pretend to be guided by the Spirit without the written word; yet it is every Christian's bounden duty to be guided by the Spirit in conjunction with the written word of God, (The Bible.)
I believe I may appeal to the experience of all true and close walkers with God, whether or not their suffering times have not frequently been their sweetest times, and that they enjoyed most of God when most cast out and despised by men? This we find was the case of Christ's primitive servants, when threatened by the Jewish priests, and commanded to preach no more in the name of Jesus; they rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for the sake of Jesus. Paul and Silas sang praises even in a dungeon; and the face of Stephen, that glorious proto-martyr of the Christian church, shone like the face of an angel. And Jesus is the same now as he was then, and takes care so to sweeten sufferings and afflictions with his love, that his disciples find, by happy experience, that as afflictions abound, consolations do much more abound. And therefore these objections, instead of destroying, do only enforce the motives before urged, to excite you to walk with God.
Enoch in all probability was a public person, and a flaming preacher. Though he is dead, does he not yet speak to us, to quicken our zeal, and make us more active in the service of our glorious and ever blessed Master? How did Enoch preach! How did Enoch walk with God, though he lived in a wicked and adulterous generation! Let us then follow him, as he followed Jesus Christ, where he is there shall we be also. He is not entered into his rest: yet a little while and we shall enter into ours, and that too much sooner than he did.
The Judge is before the door: he that cometh will come, and will not tarry: his reward is with him. And we shall all (if we are zealous for the Lord of hosts) ere long shine as the stars in the firmament, in the kingdom of our heavenly Father, for ever and ever. To Him, the blessed Jesus, and eternal Spirit, be all honor and glory, now, and to all eternity.
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