I heard someone on the radio say, “It’s not about us walking with God, it’s about God walking with us.” This made me think.
We know in Christianity, “walking with God” means having a relationship with God and living a life that follows His standards based on Scripture. It also means agreeing with God and aligning your will with His.
There are lots of ways that we walk with God including:
- Meditate daily on God’s goodness and the blessings He has bestowed on you.
- Conversing with God through prayer, bringing your needs and struggles to Him.
- Studying the Bible: Walking in God’s ways and obeying His commands.
- Fellowshipping with other believers, Acting out your faith.
Some characteristics of walking with God include: Accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, Learning to listen to God, Trusting Him, Having an eternal perspective, and Fixing your eyes on what is eternal.
Our friends at gotquestions.org offer the following answer:
The Bible promises blessings for all people who walk in God’s ways: “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!” (Psalm 128:1, ESV). Essentially, the message of this passage is the central theme of the entire book of Psalms. God favors those who reverence and honor Him and live in daily obedience to His Word, will, and ways (Psalm 1:1; 94:12; 112:1; 119:1–2).
What does it mean to walk in God’s ways? Practically speaking, how can we accomplish this? In the original Hebrew, the word translated as “walk” in Psalm 128:1 means “to live or behave in a specific manner.” Reverence for God expresses itself in actions and behaviors (Ecclesiastes 12:13; 2 Corinthians 7:1). Those who genuinely worship and serve the Lord God Almighty will devote their lives to Him not only with words but also by obeying His commands.
The Israelites were called to “walk in obedience,” “watch how they live,” and “walk faithfully” before the Lord in truth and integrity (Deuteronomy 5:33; 1 Kings 2:3–4; 2 Chronicles 7:17). Moses made the concept of walking in God’s ways clear to the people in the wilderness: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the Lord your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul. And you must always obey the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good” (Deuteronomy 10:12–13, NLT).
The Bible is the definitive roadmap for walking in God’s ways (Psalm 119:105). The Scriptures illuminate the path for our feet to walk, guiding our way in this world (Proverbs 6:23). To walk in God’s ways describes a lifestyle of daily seeking to know God and living in obedience to His will. It means delighting oneself in the Lord, meditating on His Word, and discovering His will (Psalm 1:1–2; 40:8).
Those who walk in God’s ways choose behaviors that are pleasing to Him. They “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7, ESV). They “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10, ESV). They desire to know the Lord’s heart and earnestly and continually pursue an ever-deepening relationship with God.
Jesus walked in God’s ways as a perfect example for us (Matthew 26:39; John 14:31; Philippians 2:8). He showed us that obedience and love go hand in hand: “Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3, NLT; see also John 14:15). The apostle John cites obedience as the proof of our love for God expressed through living for Him: “But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him” (1 John 2:5, NLT).
Walking in God’s ways is a metaphor for following God and living for Him. Jesus told His disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23, NLT). There is a cost to walking in God’s ways—that cost is giving up our own way. It involves death to self. In Jesus’ day, the cross represented death. When Jesus said, “Take up your cross,” the disciples understood what He meant—that they had to be willing to die to follow Him. It meant relinquishing self-will and selfish ambition. Jesus explained, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it” (Luke 9:24, NLT).
We walk in God’s ways when we do what He wants us to do. We surrender our lives to the Lord because of all He has done for us; we offer our bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God,” and this is our “true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1). The apostle Paul urges believers to “walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2).
Believers are able to walk in God’s ways because they “walk in the light” of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the light (1 John 1:7). God’s Spirit empowers them to “walk by the Spirit,” obey His Word, and live in a way that honors and pleases Him (Galatians 5:16; Ezekiel 36:27; Romans 8:4–5). In the future kingdom of heaven, all believers will walk by the light of God’s glory and the light of the Lamb (Revelation 21:23–24).
Yet, consider this …
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
God walks.
God walks in the garden.
God walks in the garden in the cool of the day.
God walks in the garden in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve.
We can assume this is the intent of the Creator—to walk with his image bearers. Is this not what prayer is in its deepest essence: walking with God? We think of prayer as talking to God. If we are honest, though, we must admit we largely think of prayer as talking to God from a distance. We pray to a God who we sense is with us; just not really here. God is somewhere else.
Here’s the interesting thing about “walking.” It seems obvious to say, but you can only walk with someone you are actually with. So, here’s the question: What if before prayer is talking to God, it is walking with God? Walking with God is not a metaphor for prayer. It is prayer.
Prayer is walking with God in a garden in the cool of the day. The lyrics from the chorus of the well-known hymn come to mind, “And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own.” This is the essence of prayer—walking with and talking with God.
But there it is again: “And He walks with me …”
He. Walks. With. Me.
This cannot be overstated. Prayer, or as Jesus called it, “abiding,” can no longer mean speaking words to a God somewhere out there. It must mean walking and talking with the God who is both transcendently present “at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,” and immanently by our side, closer than our breath. Indeed, this is pure mystery and yet it is the ultimate reality. To walk by faith means to live in this very real place called prayer.
So much of what we call prayer, from casual recitations to intense incantations, is not only less than but different from what the Bible means concerning prayer. We settle for so much less than the flourishing abundance set before us.
Friendship with God sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? And yet many of us aren’t sure how to cultivate it. We long to enjoy prayer, but it can feel intimidating. Formal. And if we’re totally honest, maybe even boring. Prayer may feel more like holy duty than close friendship.
If you, too, are longing for more — more emotion, more connection — what if you took your prayers out of whatever holy box they live in? What if you stopped trying to say the right words and just … spent time with God?
What if you stepped outside, into His glorious creation, and turned your “walk with God” into actual walks with God? And as you walked, what if you simply shared your gratitude, your burdens, your insecurities — your heart — with your Father?
Walking before/with God must be a way of life. The term walking means “to conduct oneself in a particular manner” or to “pursue a particular course of life.” In other words, instead of physically walking with God by their side, those who are said to have walked with God lived in such a way as if God really was walking by their side – they lived openly and transparently to God, trying to please him with how they lived.
Many are said to have walked with God throughout the Bible. The first was Enoch – in Genesis 5:21-24, it briefly mentions Enoch and that he “walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” I’m not sure if this means Enoch didn’t die but was just taken off to heaven without tasting death, but the wording is an anomaly compared to that around it.
Later, in Genesis 6:9, it mentions Noah and says that he walked with God, and in Genesis 17:1, God tells Abraham to “walk before him and be blameless…” In Deuteronomy 30:16, God commands that we walk in His ways, and in Micah 6:8 it says that the Lord requires us to walk humbly with Him. Looking at these examples and the commands laid out by God, I think we can conclude that to walk with Him, it requires that we make it a lifestyle, as opposed to perhaps a once-a-week visit to church.
The more you grasp the truth about who God is, about what God has decreed, about what God has done, and what God will do, the more your desire for a daily walk is motivated.
THE PRAYER
Lord Jesus, you are right here, right now. Forgive me for spiritualizing your presence when you are more present and available to us now than before you ascended. Give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation that I might know you better. Awaken me to your very real presence. I quite literally want to walk with you and I ask you to walk with me. Right here, Jesus. Right now Jesus. Amen.
For God and you,
Deb Bostwick
Blogger