1/3/15: Take a Walk

As with many people, here at the beginning of the new year, I have decided to take much better care of my health. My schedule last year seriously disrupted my workout routine, so I’m determined not to let that happen this year. I’ve started out slowly by walking each day on our treadmill. As I walk, I read my Bible. This way, I’m making sure to get my spiritual walk with the Lord in on a daily basis as well.

Walking with God is good exercise, and just as I expect positive physical results from my daily effort on the treadmill, we can expect positive spiritual results when we spend time keeping pace with the Master. To walk with God means more than just to ambulate alongside someone. Walking with God has to do with movement in one’s manner of life. We are walking with God when we are completely attuned to Him—in step with Him. He turns right; we turn right. He slows down; we slow down. He runs; we run. Look at how God worked with people in the Bible who walked with Him.

The first person in Scripture who we are told walked with God was Enoch. Back when people were living into their nine-hundreds, Enoch suddenly disappeared from the earth at the tender age of 365. Why? “Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him” Genesis 5:24 (MSG).

The second person who walked with God was Noah. When God got fed up with the wickedness on the earth and decided to destroy everything, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord [because he] was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God” Genesis 6:8-9 (NKJ). So instead of wiping everything out, God told Noah, “I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you” Genesis 6:18-19.

We also find that David walked with God. Because of David’s commitment, God promised, “You shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way to walk before Me as you have walked” First Kings 8:25 (NASB).

So, just as physical exercise yields different results for different people, so does the spiritual exercise of walking with God produce different results; but all of the results in both cases are good. Because of the treadmill, folks have experienced weight loss, built leg strength, and more efficient lung capacity. For the Biblical men above, walking with God produced an unparalleled intimate relationship, rescue, and the promise of a continual reign.

We walk with God when we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. And “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” First Corinthians 2:9 (NLT). Start your spiritual exercise routine; take a walk.

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©2015 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

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