Walking with God

This week, I had the privilege of sitting down with Dr. Estes, a professor at Cedarville University and author of several commentaries. When I was still at Cedarville, I took several of his classes and always appreciated what he had to say and his heart for the Lord; I could tell that he walked with Jesus.

A bit discouraged, I walked into Dr. Estes office and after catching up for a minute, I asked him the question that had been burning a hole in my heart: How do I lead people in worship all week long? He nodded his head to show empathy and then spoke from his 40 years of worship leading experience. "You must walk with God."

That's all he said for a brief moment.

I was shocked. I was looking for an answer with three action steps like every sermon I have ever heard. I was expecting him to lay out a 5 year plan of how I could lead people in worship every day. I actually had brought a yellow legal pad in expectation of furiously writing down the genius that flowed from this man's heart. If there was anyone who could tell me what actions I needed to take, surely it was this man. But all he said was, "You must walk with God," and I didn't need to write that down on my legal pad to remember.

After letting it sink in for a minute, Dr. Estes went on to explain that walking with God is how we continually worship. There are countless examples of this metaphor in Scripture that he pointed to, but his point was that walking with God is something that every Christian is called to do and has the privilege of doing. Maybe it was just me, but this concept seemed rather abstract. "How does one practically go about 'walking' with God on a daily and hourly basis?" I asked.

"It begins by being rather rehearsed. If one doesn't have the habit of walking with God, he may need to put some artificial things in place in order to remember Him and think about Him throughout the day. For instance," Dr. Estes continued, "something that may help would be to take two minutes at the top of every hour and meditate upon God's Word. This is a practice that allows our minds to refocus on what really matters, God. Something that also helps is having a visual reminder. Set out an extra chair in your office or house and every so often, look over and imagine Jesus sitting there and talk with Him. It may seem silly at first, but I don't think Jesus would mind." He said smiling. As he was talking, I could tell that this man truly walked with God. I literally could feel God's presence in the room and sat speechless as he continued to talk. How I long to be a man who truly knows and walks with God.

The conversation continued for a while as we discussed that importance of the corporate celebration of God and the individual devotion of every believer. I came away with one main point: God wants us to walk with Him. This is something that I am still trying to figure out, but I encourage you to not pray to some God who is far off. Pray to the God of the universe who lives inside of you. He is right there with you. He is sitting in the spare chair in your living room. He is in your passenger's seat when you are driving. He lives inside of you. He walks with you.

God doesn't desire your flowery language and eloquent speech, He desires a relationship with you. He just wants to talk. He just wants to walk with you. We have the privilege to walk with the God of the universe. How is your walk with God going?