By Forrest D. Moyer
A daily walk with my God is one of the basic requirements of his word. “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Mic. 6:8) This but re-echos the charge given in Deuteronomy 10:12: “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord they God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” One of the sweetest compliments to any man is what is written of Enoch: “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Gen. 5:24). Nothing greater could be said of you than this.
But is all of this just so much rhetoric? Are we just saying pious words? No, for walking with God must be a positive reality in our lives. It involves our thinking, our acting, and our speaking. But before we can think, act and speak in the proper sense of this matter, there are some basic prerequisites. We want to look behind the scenes of the daily walk with God to see how and why it is done.
Faith
Beneath all of our daily actions there must be an indomitable faith in God. Unless we totally believe that there is a God and that he is the God revealed in the Word, there will be no incentive to “walk with him.” “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6). Paul based his whole life on the conviction that “I believe God” (Acts 27:25). So must we. It seems evident that the reason so many do not walk with God is because of their lack of faith. Church members sometimes evince little faith in God by the way they live. Faith in God is the basic foundation for our walking with him.
Faith In His Grace
Unless we are committed to the principle of his saving grace, we cannot really walk with him. Just as a newborn baby cannot walk on its own physical power, neither can we walk spiritually on our own power. We cannot provide the means of our salvation for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-24). There are no “works of righteousness” that I can perform that will merit for me a right-standing with my God (Tit. 3:5). But because God is “rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us,” and because of the “surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus,” he saved us and “made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:4-7). Praise him for his amazing grace that saved a wretch like me! For me to walk with God, I must have faith in his saving grace. Too many Christians are struggling futilely with the weight of their daily sins hanging, like the dead albatross, about their necks.
You see, it is “by faith” that we have access “into this grace in which we stand” (Rom. 5:2). Knowing that we “stand” in his grace gives to us that powerful motivation to walk with him. John shows that as “we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:7). Without that cleansing blood constantly there, I could never walk with my God. Our lives are too much controlled by fleshly impulses and too spiritually immature for us to make it on our own. We must have his grace which provides Jesus’ blood in order to walk with him. But please observe that the blood is available upon our meeting certain conditions. We originally apply that saving blood when our faith leads us through repentance into the waters of baptism where our sins are washed away by his blood (Acts 22:16; Rom. 6:3-6). As we continue to walk in the light, we will confess our sins to the Lord and that blood will continue to be applied in his cleansing us from all unrighteousness (I Jn. 1:9). The blood of his grace is not unconditionally applied to our lives.
When we have the solid conviction that there is a God of love and grace who provided his own Son so that we could be pardoned of every spiritual crime of the past and so that we can daily be forgiven of our faltering and stumbling ways, we have the renewed power to grasp his leading hand and take our every footstep under his control. Only in this way can our walk with him be a joyous one. If I live in the constant fear that “I may not have done enough to go to Heaven” or “I’m just not good enough,” my life will be miserable. I know too many church-members who have been whipped with the scourge of “perfect works” as the only way to please him. They are down-trodden by the weight of a “works” salvation. Oh, how we need to have full faith in the powerful grace of our God.
Walking In Good Works
Surely, we understand that our salvation by his grace does not mean a lack of effort or a lack of action on our part. Having shown that we are saved by grace through faith in Ephesians 2:8-9, Paul then said, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (v. 10). Notice, (1) We are “his” workmanship – not our own. (2) We are “created” in Christ Jesus for good works. (3) These “good works” have been prepared by God – not works of human invention. (4) We must “walk in them.” We do this by allowing God’s word to direct us in all our ways. When we turn loose of his word, our difficulties begin. This is why we need to live with the Word as a vital part of our daily lives. Coupled with our daily prayer, we can “walk in them” daily. No, good friend, being saved by his grace does not eliminate our walking in the way that God has ordained. Being saved by grace gives to us the motivation to walk with him in joyous anticipation of being with him eternally.
Are you walking with God? Are you enjoying your daily walk with him? If you are thinking only in terms of your human works of righteousness, you will think of praise of yourself rather than of God! Why not begin that happy walk with your God right now? What a joy it is to know that you are holding on to his unchanging hand!
Guardian of Truth XXXI: 18, pp. 552-553
September 17, 1987