To Walk with God

Have you ever gotten bogged down with the genealogies in the Old Testament? In my teens, I decided to take to heart the truth that God is intentional with every detail recorded in His Word, and began to pay closer attention to the seemingly unimportant lists of names scattered throughout the Bible.

As I began a fresh read-through of the Bible this year, I found myself again reading one of those genealogies and fighting the urge to skim. But as I read, something struck me. It wasn’t necessarily a thought I had never had before, but rather, a fresh reminder of a familiar detail.

Genesis 5 gives a genealogy of the generations from Adam to Noah. There is a sort of formula the passage follows: someone lived a certain number of years, then begat a certain son, then lived a certain number of years more. But of all the people listed, one breaks the pattern:

“And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after He begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not, for God took him.” vv. 21-24

Apart from the lengthy life (which is actually somewhat shorter than the others listed) and the remarkable way in which God took him, there is one other detail about Enoch that I think holds a great significance to you and me.

After a long string of people who lived a certain amount of years, then had a child, then lived a further number of years, notice that Enoch didn’t just live those years after Methuselah was born: He walked with God.

Now, this may seem too fine a point, but God is intentional with His Word. The very fact that this detail about Enoch breaks a pattern makes it highly significant. Those years of walking with God were so significant, in fact, that God chose to do something unprecedented—and rarely seen after—in human history: to take Enoch up into heaven without dying first.

What if you and I didn’t just “live” this year? What if this year was the start of our own set of years in which we went beyond just living and truly walked with God?

If you’re up for the challenge, set aside some quiet moments with the Lord, turn off your phone, free yourself from distractions, and ask God to show you your first next step as you purpose to walk with Him this year. It may be that the Holy Spirit will show you an area of sin that needs to be confessed and conquered through His empowering. It may be that there is a specific person He wants you to share the gospel with. It may be a specific portion of Scripture He wants you to immerse yourself in, or a reading plan He is prompting you to take on.

Every Christian’s end goal is the same: to glorify God in our walk with Him, but every Christian’s steps will be ordered uniquely, because the God of all creation knows each of His individual creatures personally, intimately, and completely.

So, dear reader, what’s your next step? Will you choose to take it in faith, leaning on the ever-present help of our Lord?

“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and He delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand.” Psalm 37:23-24