WALKING WITH GOD DAY BY DAY

And....He walks with me and He talks with me...and He tells me I am His own.  Oh how we would raise the roof at my grandparents little Baptist church in Hitt, Missouri and later in Arbela when I was a young boy.  The grace-filled words we sang are always needed in our daily walk with God.

How do we approach the concept of walking with Him?

First, the very idea is a challenge because we can develop a rules mentality rather than relationship experience.  If not aware, God will become a game or a contest where we find ourselves trying to give all of the correct answers to a religious quiz rather than knowing Him personally.

So how are we to carry on a relationship; Him being divine and us being human?

Our best clue is found in Jesus.  He was both divine and human.  How he did and what he did gives us our best insight.  Let's see if we can pick up on a few traits which might be of help.

1. Jesus prayed as a connecting relationship with Father.  Prayer was not a duty; but rather the means of dialog between the Two.  It was Their in-touch synchronization.  This spending time together kept their heart-connections in tact.  
2. Prayer evidently wasn't a grocery list of needs.  I want.  I need.  I would like.  Please bless me this way.  And that way.  Jesus prayed about what God wanted and what others needed.
3. Jesus taught that we are free to ask for what we would like on the basis that we yield to Father's will...and not our own.  
4. A bond with God grows tighter the more we live thankfully.  Praying with thanksgiving is both meaningful and effective.

How do we transition from prayer rules to prayer relationship with God?  The possibilities are numerous.  Personally, I've moved from not caring for prayer (as a minister) to walking in contact with Him.

Progress in prayer increases as thankfulness increases.  When prayer isn't necessarily an official time but a way of life it seems God/man conversations take place rather than offering wishful words to the nearest ceiling.  God is very real; very alive.  He hears and He responds.

When I talk with God, I brag on Him to Him.  I thank Him every morning for street corners, for businesses in operation and for people...everywhere there are variations of good, hurting, lonely, or celebrating people on their way to work or to school.  Each day I list before Him the 47 neighbors that I have met so far in my three years on this street where I live.  I know them by name.  Only a handful know that I am praying for them.

And then the other side of this two-way relationship is that God speaks to us.  This action has been discouraged in our society by two factors; (1) unbelief in the Invisible God, and (2) irrational representatives of the kingdom whose talk is not backed by our walk.  Thoughtless chatter gives doubters the verification of our shallowness that they suspected all along.

At one time I doubted the line of God speaking to us.  But I have learned and I experience differently.  His Spirit may not speak in English terms; yet He has a way of sharing ideas and thoughts.  As an example, I have learned to hear from God regarding my sermon preparation as much as I have applied myself in study.  If the Spirit isn't leading, my sermons are boring presentations of a mere man.

When I walked by the visible only, I found ministry to be stifled in the man-made mode.  But when by the Spirit, it seems wonder and over-joy continues to flow.