"Walk This Way"

Thus saith the LORD, “Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”  But they said, “We will not walk therein.”  -Jeremiah 6:16

It is a dark, deplorable, and dangerous disposition to know the right way to go and choose instead to go the wrong way.  Certainly there are couples right now bearing the marks of an unnecessary argument because one thought they knew the way, and the other thought they needed to stop and ask for directions.  And the only winner was pride, who refused to allow either party be incorrect.

 A few years ago at the first annual Charles E  Booth expository preaching conference, Dr. John Kenny from Virginia Union explained to us that his chiropractic Doctor could locate his pain and consequently could pinpoint where he was having trouble and needed help simply by watching him walk.   Our spiritual lives are so unique in the sense that the only one who can tell we need improvements and adjustments is God.  Sometimes even we ourselves are unaware of where we are limping along and struggling to walk a spiritually straight line.  It is only as we examine ourselves in the mirror of prayer and stand ourselves up against the standard of scripture and follow the divine prognosis administered by the Holy Spirit that we are able to walk in a way that honors and glorifies God and illuminates the dark, narrow path for our brethren who follow us. And because we have grown accustomed and acclimated to the way that we walk, both spiritual and physical adjustments to straighten our walks are painfully disruptive and our bodies always rebel against walking in righteousness (the right way).                                                                                                                      

In the natural we have physical therapists, who train our bodies to walk straight after corrective surgery.  In the spiritual realm, we have preachers, teachers, parents and peers, who stay on us in an attempt to hold us accountable, in order to keep us on our spiritual regimen.  I'm so glad that God is not only a divine orthopedic surgeon that corrects my steps, he is also a divine navigator who directs my steps so that I'm always found traveling in the direction of his will and his way.

In the African-American homiletical tradition there is a parable of poetic license that says, "Enoch walked with God every day.  Every day these enjoyable walks with God would grow increasingly longer.  Finally, one evening after they have been walking together all day, God saw how far Enoch was from his own home.  God also noticed how close they were to His house.  So God looked at Enoch and God saw that Enoch was closer to His house than to Enoch’s house.  God kindly suggests to Enoch, “Since you are closer to my house than your own house, why don't you just come and stay at my house?”  The rest is Biblical history.

Today, why don't you make up your mind to walk closer to God?  Why don’t you decide to walk further and go longer with God after each "correction"?

You, too, can end your journey walking with God accepting a personal invitation to live in His house, forever.

Advancing the Kingdom,

RLL