Walking with God (Genesis 5:24)
Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
– Genesis 5:24
What an incredible verse—one of my favorite verses in all the Old Testament. This is the summary of Enoch’s life: he walked with God. That’s it. That is the summary of his whole life in the world—he walked with God.
Genesis 5:24 challenges us to imitate Enoch.
Don’t you want that to be the summary of your life? What an amazing life. He walked with God every day. He walked with God. Enoch got up in the morning and walked with God all day long, went to bed, got up the next day, and walked with God some more. Yes—may that be your life and my life. This is the beauty of what Jesus has made possible for us in a greater way than even Enoch experienced, because we have the Spirit of God with us in a way Enoch did not.
We have commands in the New Testament to walk in step with the Spirit of God. Think about it this way: what if Jesus were physically right next to you today? What would it be like to go through your day with Jesus right beside you? It would be amazing to walk with Jesus today, and tomorrow, and the next day.
Think about how our lives would look different—how they would change in so many ways—as we walk with Jesus. Then realize this: yes, Jesus is not physically with us, but that is the beauty of what Jesus said after he died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. He said, “I am going to send my Spirit to live in you” (John 14). “It is going to be better than me beside you; I am going to be inside you.” You and I have the pure privilege and honor of walking with God today, with the Spirit of Jesus leading us, guiding us, and directing us from the inside out.
Genesis 5:24 is an image of what the Christian life is meant to be.
This is amazing. This is the Christian life. Let’s live it to the full today.
O God, we praise you for Enoch. We praise you for his example. Lord, we praise you for the way he walked with you, talked with you, and listened to you. We imagine what it was like for Enoch to walk with you.
And we praise you, Jesus, for making something even greater possible for every one of us—not just for a select few like Enoch—that every one of us today has the privilege, O God, of walking with you, talking with you all day long, listening to you all day long, you leading us all day long, directing us, empowering us, giving us boldness to witness, giving us strength when we face challenges, and giving us strength when we face temptation—the ability to turn from it.
O God, help us to walk with you all day long today. We pray that at the end of today—or, if we are praying this at night, at the end of tomorrow—this would be the commentary on our day: that we walked with God. O God, may it be so. Lead us, guide us, direct us, shape us, mold us, and do everything you desire in us and through us, as we trust you as our life.
Prayer for the Uregu Berber People
O God, as we pray for unreached people, we pray specifically today for the Uregu Berber people of Morocco—77,000 of them—and for all other unreached people groups like them who do not know the good news of your love for them. As we walk with you today, please help us to follow you in every way you lead for the spread of your glory among the nations.
Help us to follow you with the use of our resources. Help us to follow you in making disciples of the nations right around us today, with you. And God, we pray that you would raise up laborers for the harvest field among the Uregu Berber to follow you and reach them with the gospel. We pray that you would help us—or our brothers and sisters around the world—to get the gospel to them in Morocco and to thousands of people groups like them.
Help us to follow you wherever and however you lead us, as we walk with you, until all the nations know that you are God—until all the nations are able to walk with you. We pray this in Jesus’ name, according to your Word in Genesis 5:24. Amen.
