Walking Humbly With God

The scripture makes it clear what God wants from each of us: “This is what the LORD requires from you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to live humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8, God’s Word Translation. Notice, God requires this from every man, woman, and child. No exceptions. No excuses. God has the same expectation from everyone who is alive and who has ever lived. In other words, He treats everyone equally, always. Further, He reveals His goal for us — to walk humbly with Him. That’s what I’d like to talk about in this post.

Today, within the minds of many, there’s a victim narrative. Although each of us has been harmed in some way, those harms don’t take away our own responsibility to do the right thing in the middle of those harms we are suffering. It’s easy to think it’s right to do the wrong thing because we’ve been harmed. The truth is, it’s never right to do wrong. Ever. For every wrong we do to someone else is a wrong we ourselves will suffer for. As such, we are required, not by man but by God, to do the right thing. God is looking for us to treat others justly.

The great Dr. Martin Luther King, on the steps of Lincoln’s Memorial in Washington, D.C., said these words, “we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. [flowing abundantly]’” Amos 5:24, AMP.  That’s what mankind is called to do — to seek justice. But today, many want their own brand of justice, which really isn’t justice. The justice spoken of in Micah is God’s justice. I’d like us to remind us of God’s expectation — that each of us, White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian, has that singular expectation from God Himself. In truth, God sees no difference between people based on race. Rather, it’s the blackness of the sin in our hearts that He wants to wash white with Christ’s blood. He wants His brand of justice on the hearts of every man, woman, and child — the blood of Jesus. That was King’s dream. And it should be our dream too, for that’s God’s dream. 

Dr. Martin Luther King

After justice, we should seek mercy. Notice, mercy isn’t first. Sometimes, we put mercy before justice. This has been happening more and more. When we do that, we’re not truly offering mercy. No! We’re offering unbridled compassion, compassion that requires nothing from anybody. But that’s not love. God has His requirements. And we should have our requirements too. Justice always precedes mercy. Always. Otherwise, we get what we gave today — suicidal empathy — mercy that destroys not mercy that restores. Mercy, if not channeled properly can destroy us and the people we offer mercy to. And it leads to enablement in sinful behavior and conduct. We love mercy, but we seek justice — God’s justice not our own “justice” — first.

Lastly, God, through the prophet Micah, tells us His ultimate purpose for us — you and me — to humbly walk with Him. And that’s the path of justice and mercy — humility. Without humility, we cannot and won’t have either justice or mercy, for humility is where God walks. And only those who are humble can walk with God. Interestingly, the requirements for walking are two primary things — humility and faith. Yes, faith is required to walk with God. That’s how Enoch walked with God. “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”.   Genesis 5:24, KJV. And “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death”. Hebrews 11:5, Berean Standard Bible. Wow! What a testimony! Other than Jesus, I can’t think of anyone else who walked with God like Enoch, although many tried. And only one other person came close, Elijah.

“Knowing who God is enables us to walk with Him.”—Scott Wallis

So, in learning to walk humbly with God, I can think of no one else I would rather learn from than Enoch. Interestingly, we have no record of anything Enoch said in scripture other than what the Apostle Jude wrote, “Listen! The Lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on the people of the world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” Jude 1:14, 15, KJV.  That’s all we authoritatively know, scripturally speaking, Enoch said. Notice, besides being a man of humility and faith, he was also a man who desired God’s justice.

Further, Enoch prophesied. That should tell us how important the prophetic is to our walk with God.We need prophecy today to walk with God. Enoch had prophecy and he was the seventh from Adam. Adam was still alive when Enoch was born. Adam could’ve walked with God but he didn’t. Enoch is known as a man who walked with God. In other words, Enoch made different choices than Adam. Enoch chose God above all else. Adam chose Eve, and he rebelled against God. One bad decision, and one wrong move condemned mankind to the dire consequences of sin — death. But Enoch, without a Bible, prophetically walked with God and chose God; he didn’t rebel. As such, God took him and Enoch didn’t die. Why? He walked in the Spirit and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus brought supernatural life to his physical body. And that was before Christ had come.

What we scripturally know about Enoch is this: he is a man of great faith, for he is listed first in the book of Hebrews 11 — the faith chapter of the Bible. We also know that Enoch was prophetic, for he is the first person in the Bible who prophesies. And in the prophecy Enoch spoke, we see Enoch prophesied the Lord bringing justice to earth; he saw the Lord’s second coming even before his first coming. What did he see and prophesy? Justice is coming. And he loved it. But he didn’t stop there. No, he continued walking with God. Enoch never stopped; he loved walking with God. And what did he and God do as they walked? They talked. They went in the same direction. Day after day, year after year…until one day…God couldn’t imagine not having Enoch by his side and Enoch couldn’t imagine leaving God’s side — they have a long term friendship cultivated through years of walking together that is, quite literally, out of this world.

Yet, for that friendship to happen, Enoch had to do one more thing, according to scripture, he had to walk humbly with God. Enoch is a man of great humility. And this last piece is the hardest one for most men and women, to walk humbly with God. Today, God still longs to walk with others like He walks with Enoch. God has never limited who He desires to walk with. No, it’s mankind who tempts and limits God. Yet, we think it’s God tempting us. No! Our loving Father never tempts us. The Apostle James tells us, “God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.” James 1:13, NLT. NEVER! Whenever you see something God cannot do, pay attention, for there we discover the immutable nature of God. For example, in Hebrews 6:18, NIV, it says, “it is impossible for God to lie”. 

Knowing who God is enables us to walk with Him. Enoch knew God and humbly walked with God, as a friend. And that’s what God desires — someone, anyone, everyone to walk with Him. And that should be the desire of every man, woman, and child — to walk with God. And that walk requires faith, as the Bible says, for “without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6, Amplified Bible. That’s what God wants. That’s what Enoch has. And that’s what you should desire too — to humbly walk with God. I know I do. 

Let us pray!

— Scott Wallis