As we get ready to start the new year, let’s look at an example of someone who walked by faith with God. The Bible tells us twice that “Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:22, 24 (NKJV)). What does that mean? In Hebrews, we get more insight into Enoch’s walk with God.

“By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, ‘and was not found, because God had taken him’; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” (Hebrews 11:5 (NKJV))

Although we are not given the details, we know from this verse that Enoch pleased God. And how did Enoch please Him? Enoch pleased God because he walked by faith.

The next verse in Hebrews teaches us about faith.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV))

So, to walk by faith with God you must

• come to God;
• believe that He is God – that He is who He said He is, the way He has revealed Himself to us in the Bible; and
• believe that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

Diligent means that you seek God in a steady, earnest, and energetic way. It’s a daily desire to find out more about God and draw closer to Him.

If you come to God, truly believing that He is God and that He will reward you if you diligently seek Him, you’ll share your life with Him and trust Him with everything. When you are trusting God, you live the way He wants you to live. And you do the things He wants you to do. You want to please Him. You do things God’s way because He knows what is best for you.

You can learn about what God wants you to do by reading the Bible. The Bible is “inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right” (2 Timothy 3:16 (NLT)). The Bible tells us what God loves, what God hates, and how God wants us to live.

After you learn about the things God wants you to do, you must actually do them. To walk with God, you must “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22 (NKJV)).  In other words, you don’t just listen to the Bible, you do what it tells you to do.

As you move forward, you’ll talk to God about what is going on in your life and look to Him for direction. You’ll walk alongside Him at the pace He sets for you. You’ll go where He goes, turn when He turns, slow down when He walks more slowly, and stop when He stops.

We need to examine our walk with God because we don’t always do that. Paul exhorted us to examine ourselves “as to whether you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5 (NKJV)). We must focus on our walk with God because we can stray if we’re not paying attention. You may not even notice that you are no longer walking with Him.

Let’s look at it in a different way. Think about going for a walk with a friend. Generally, when you’ve planned to walk with a friend, you’re excited about spending time with her. As you walk, you talk about what is going on in your life. You keep in step with each other, walking at the same pace. Her nonverbal cues tell you when she’s going to turn a corner instead of going straight.

But what if you started to ignore her? Instead of paying attention to your friend, you begin thinking about the things you need to do or a problem you have. Before you know it, you start walking in a different direction. Further down the road, you look up, and you’re no longer with her.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Yet, our walk with God can be like that. One moment, we’re excited about spending time with Him. We’re sharing everything with Him. We tell Him the things we are thinking about and the problems we are having. We trust Him with our dreams. We ask Him for help, for wisdom. We seek His guidance as we walk in step with Him.

Then one day, you look up and realize that you’re no longer walking with God. You’ve started walking on your own path, at your own pace. You’re making decisions without consulting Him. You feel alone. You’re tired and weary.

What happened? You took your focus off God. God didn’t leave you; you left Him.

It doesn’t happen all at once. Typically, a person doesn’t wake up one morning and make a decision to stop walking with God. Instead, you start slowly drifting away from Him. Maybe you got up late and didn’t have time to read your Bible. You got busy so you didn’t pray. You didn’t talk to God throughout your day. Then one day becomes two. Before you know it, a whole week or month has passed.

We need to make a decision to walk by faith with God like Enoch did. It’s a choice we make – whether to get our direction from God each step of the way as we abide in Him or whether we do our own thing, in our own way.

Each day, we decide how we will walk. I hope you will join me in being like Enoch. Let’s diligently seek Him and be known as women who walk by faith with God.