Walking in the Dark

There’s a time for running and a time for walking. And most of the time, it’s a lot easier to walk than to run.

The Bible uses the metaphor of walking as well as running, and in the Book of Isaiah, we find this promise: “But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31 NLT).

In the race of life, the objective is not to run fast; it’s to run long. The objective is to cross the finish line. The apostle Paul wrote, “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:14 NLT).

Then Paul added this thought: “Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things” (verse 15 NLT). In other words, he was saying that if we want to grow spiritually, then we need to learn how to pace ourselves in the race of life.

Some people seem to have a yo-yo type of relationship with God. Either they are fully passionate, or they are half-hearted. One day they are so excited about Jesus that it borders on being obnoxious. But another day they’re depressed and struggling with sin.

We need to learn how to pace ourselves. We need to learn how to find consistency.

That is why, after his sin with Bathsheba, King David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10 NLT). David was saying, “Help me to be consistent.” And that is what we need in our lives too.

When we first come to Christ, there is initial excitement. There’s joy and peace. That is not to suggest those things go away. But it is to say that sooner or later, we must learn that the Christian life is a walk of faith and not of feeling. Feelings will come and go. Therefore, we need to learn to walk by faith.

That is what a man named Enoch did. In fact, the Bible tells us that he walked with God for 300 years. He walked with God when most others would not. And his story teaches us how we can not only win the race of life but also keep going, even when things get hard.

Enoch lived during the time before God’s judgment on the earth by the Flood. The Bible says of this time, “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil” (Genesis 6:5 NLT).

People were extremely wicked—so wicked, in fact, that God said He was sorry that He had ever made them. Yet in the midst of this dark world was someone who walked with God. Enoch showed us that it is possible to live a godly life in an ungodly world.

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