Walk in His Ways – The Kingdom Curriculum V (2)

Walk in His Ways

“You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20.3; Deuteronomy 5:7

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways…” Read Deuteronomy 10.12

To “have” God is to walk in His ways.

To have God as our only God we must learn to fear Him. But in fearing Him we also know gratitude and relief for the fact that, though God should rightly condemn and destroy us, He has set His love upon us and drawn us to Himself through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, in our fear of God we feel close to Him, loved by Him, and a desire to go with Him wherever He may lead us. Thus to “have” God as our God alone means that we will walk with Him in all His ways.

I love the way the Bible uses the verb, “walk.” Since walking was the typical means of conveyance throughout the period of the Bible, it came to stand for normalcy, or, daily life. A person’s “walk” described not just his particular stride or saunter, but his whole life. To “walk” was to live, to carry out all one’s normal activities. Those who fear God, who are aware of His power and purity, and of their own foolishness, are also mindful of how this holy and just God deals with those who persist in ways that offend and affront His holiness. And so, in “having” this God as their God, they seek, out of fear and respect for Him, to bring the whole of their lives into line with God’s ways. To “have” God is to have Him with us throughout all our walk, as we direct that walk along the ways that God reveals to us in His Law.

Walking with God means that His Law lights our path (Ps. 119:105), His glory is our daily goal and objective (Hab. 2:14), His presence is our comfort and strength (Ps. 23:1-4), and His priorities become our priorities as well – in particular, the priority of seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness (Matt. 6:33). When we walk with God in this way we will not allow ourselves to be sidetracked on to lesser roadways, lured down dark and enticing paths, or diverted in any way from the journey to which the Lord has called us (Matt. 4:19; Matt. 28:18-20). The evidence that we have God as the ultimate object of all our affection, devotion, attention, and strength is that we walk where He does, how He does, and for the ends He seeks. All our life thus becomes a constant witness to the fact that we worship and serve one God, and one God only.

Fearing God we will walk with Him, for we will not want to be found by Him in any place other than where He Himself shall be.

Be sure to order your copy of The Law of God by going to www.MyParuchia.com and clicking on Publications, then Waxed Tablet. Begin to make daily reading and meditation in God’s Law part of your discipline of the Word (Ps. 94:12-15).

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.