Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Jan 2nd, 2011 Do You Want To Go For A Walk?

Today’s Passage – Genesis 4 – 6

“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” (Genesis 5:24)

I am writing this thought on Saturday evening: New Years Day actually. I just took a walk with my daughter, Hannah; her friend, Lexi; and our dog, Casie. Casie is a little bit portly: well, actually she is downright fat. She needs to lose weight: so we took her for a walk. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the time with the girls and Casie. We talked, and laughed, and just enjoyed some quality time together. It was a time when my attention was focused on them, and their attention was on each other and me. I guess this is why God enjoys when His children walk with Him.

In our text we read about a man that is not mentioned all that much in the Bible: maybe a half dozen times; but we know that he walked with God; and we also know that God took him to Heaven long before his time to die. He has the distinction of being only one of two people in the Bible from the past that was “raptured” up to Heaven. Do you know who the other man was? I’ll let you research it if you do not know. Anyway, God took Enoch a few years prior to the flood of Noah’s day, and he is a picture of the believer today who will be taken to Heaven (raptured) prior to the Great Tribulation that will take place here on the earth in the near future.

My thought for this post, however, is not Enoch’s departure from the earth, but rather his walk with God. It is interesting that the phrase “walked with God” is only used twice in the Bible: here, and also once referring to Noah. I hope that some day, it can be recorded about me that I walked with God. My only resolution for this New Year is to get closer to God: to spend more time with Him. Recently, I have begun walking early in the morning so that I can spend some undistracted time with the Lord. I pray that it remains a regular part of my routine throughout the year. Don’t misunderstand, I also want to see some changes and improvements in my life this year, but I am completely convinced that the way to see real change occur is through a relationship with the Lord that daily grows more intimate. I like what Paul said in Philippians 3:10:

“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

By the way, I know that I have been writing and speaking a lot lately about this theme. I can’t help it. It is in my head. I feel like the guy who just came back from vacation and can’t talk about anything else. I am excited about what God is going to do this year, and the best part about it is that I am not going to do the work; He is. All I am going to do is try to walk as close to Him as I possibly can; and just maybe, on one of our walks He will take me home to Heaven as well.

How about you? When was the last time that you took a nice long walk with the Lord? Have you been neglecting your time spent with Him? Why not determine that the one thing that you accomplish this year is strengthening your relationship with Him.