I love walking. Apparently it is one of the best forms of physical exercise. Of course, walking is also a means of transport. In the ancient world it was the most common – and for some people the only – means of getting around.
Walking for whatever reason is more enjoyable with someone else. Walking and talking is a great way to communicate with family, friends and also with God.
The point is that we are doing two things at the same time. We are not just taking exercise or travelling. As we walk together we are in communion with one another.
While you are doing other things – working, eating, exercising or relaxing – you can be in communion with God at the same time.
Personally, I also find it the best way to pray. I take with me paper and a pen to write down anything. You can pray as you walk to the bus stop or walk between meetings during the day. Talk as you walk.
The Bible has a great deal to say about walking with God. It is how we were intended to live. It was only Adam and Eve’s sin that made them hide when they ‘heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. God’s desire for you is that you walk humbly in a relationship with him (Micah 6:8).
This is what Jesus has made possible – for you to walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:6).
You may stumble from time to time, but one day you will walk with him ‘dressed in white’ (Revelation 3:4).
David walked with God. But this does not mean that everything was perfect. David did not have an easy life: ‘Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.”’ (Psalm 3:1–2). But David cries out to God, ‘But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory around me and lift up my head. Like David, bring your fears and requests to God: ‘To the Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. In spite of his distressing situation God lifted up David’s head.
‘Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him’ Noah also walked with God. He found ‘grace (favor) in the eyes of the Lord’.Noah walked with God’. Both Enoch and Noah ‘walked with God’ (Genesis 5:24; 6:9). They didn’t just sit, kneel or stand with God (the kind of actions we would often associate with spending time with God), but they were also in communion with God when doing something else.
Evil starts in our thinking and imagination – that is, in our hearts. It is a case of ‘garbage in, garbage out’. We need to watch not just our actions but also our thoughts, attitudes, motives and imagination.
God created us to walk in relationship with him. God does not want you to be downcast – constantly looking at the regrets behind you, the problems around you and the sin within you. Rather, he wants you to lift up your head and see the help above you – to walk with your head held high, and your eyes fixed on him.
