What It Means to Walk with God

I have heard that if you walk three times a day at a brisk pace, it can help keep you in good shape physically. You won’t move as quickly as you move when you are running. Walking is a regulated motion, but as you do it, you make progress. You move forward gradually.

If we want to abide in Jesus, we must walk as He walked. The Bible says, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6).

Walking with God is a picture the Bible often uses to describe the Christian life. Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Colossians 2:6 tells us, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” And in Micah 6:8 we read, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Again and again the Bible tells us that we need to walk with God. It’s something we need to commit ourselves to. An interesting verse in Amos 3 gives us an important aspect of walking with God: “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” (verse 3).

In the original language, the term together carries the concept of two people moving as a single unit. To walk with God means moving together as a single unit. We are united toward the same goal. We are putting our strength toward the same end. We are moving together at the same pace.

To walk with God means that we are moving in harmony with Him. We are staying close to Him. It is the same concept as abiding.