(ThyBlackMan.com) “Enoch walked with God … Noah walked with God.” Genesis 5:24; Genesis 6:9
In Amos 3:3, God asks “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Two people who take a walk first must meet to begin walking together. To walk with someone means being side-by-side; not running ahead or lagging behind but keeping pace with them, moving in the same direction toward an agreed, shared destination.
Walking with God is a choice we make. Walking with God is a delight that we experience by coming into agreement with him — being in right relationship and having fellowship with him. Enoch and Noah are two persons that God took note of in this regard. Let me share what walking with God entails.
Walking with God catches his attention and matters most to him.
In Genesis Chapter 5, we are provided the births, children and deaths of nine persons. There is nothing else noted of them, except for “Enoch walked with God” (Gen. 5:22, 24). The interesting thing about Enoch is that he lived the shortest amount of time of all listed: 365 years (Gen. 5:23).
Here’s an important point about life: Living a long life isn’t what catches God’s attention, or what he takes note of. What God takes note of and matters most to him is our walking faithfully and steadily in habitual fellowship with him, being and keeping in step with him.
Enoch’s faithful walk in fellowship with God was a testimony that Enoch “pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5).
Walking with God entails living within the unknown of faith.
Walking with God sometimes means imagining something you’ve never seen or thought about; going somewhere you’ve never been or thought about going; doing something you’ve never done or thought about doing.
Walking with God may thus put demands on our capacity causing us to s-t-r-e-t-c-h our faith. At times that may mean not knowing all the particulars or anything about what God wants us to do. That can be an adventurous thrill for some, or a scary situation for others.
Noah was commissioned to build a ship-sized, unpowered ark. This was something he had no idea about for something he had never heard of, seen or experienced — a flood (Hebrews 11:7). Noah had to enter and live in the ark, an environment he wasn’t accustomed to living in. When Noah exited the ark, he was venturing into a world and an environment that was different from the world he had experienced before entering the ark.
When Abraham was called to leave his family and homeland to go to Canaan land, God didn’t tell him where he was going, just that he would show Abraham. We’re informed that by faith Abraham went, not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). In walking with God, sometimes he purposely leaves us clueless, yet wants us to trust him with every step.
Walking with God is a choice to obey God regardless.
Obedience is a human response of submitting to God’s authority. It’s often expressed as keeping or doing God’s commands. The basic meaning of it is listening or hearkening one’s ear to the voice of God with the intent to obey (1 Samuel 15:22).
Despite never having seen or never having the need of an ark and never having seen or experienced a flood, Noah meticulously obeyed God’s every command at every step: as to building the ark (Genesis 6:14-16), as to who to take in the ark (Genesis 6:18-21), as to when to enter the ark (Genesis 7:1-5) and when to exit the ark (Genesis 8:15-18).
Just think what Noah and his family would have experienced if he had chosen not to walk with God, and not obeyed him in building the ark.
As you move forward in this year, make a resolute decision to walk with God.
Written by Rev. Johnson A. Beaven III
Official website; https://Twitter.com/jbeaven
