If No One Plays Second

Someone once asked the conductor Leonard Bernstein, “What is the hardest instrument to play?”

“Second fiddle,” he said. “I can always get plenty of first violinists, but to find one who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm or second French horn or second flute, now that’s a problem. And yet if no one plays second, we have no harmony.”

The same principle applies to walking with God. If we want to walk with God, then we need to get in sync with Him, walking together as a single unit. The Bible says, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3 NKJV).

For instance, if you were sitting in a canoe paddling one direction while someone else in the canoe was paddling another, that would impair your performance, wouldn’t it?

Likewise, to walk with God means to be in rhythm with God, to keep pace with God, to be in harmony with God. It means communicating with Him, speaking to Him, and hearing from Him.

We find references to walking with God many times in the New Testament. For example, Colossians 2:6 tells us, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (NKJV). And 1 John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (NKJV).

Also, Galatians 5 reminds us, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (verse 16 NKJV).

To walk with God is to stay in harmony with Him. It isn’t saying, “God, here’s where I’m going. Come with me.” Rather, we should say, “Lord, where are You going? I want to go with You.” That is the picture of walking with God.