I have been evaluating my own life over the last few months. Where have I been? Where am I going? What should be the focus?
In part, the answer has been just what I wrote last time. I want to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, making a priority what He prioritizes, valuing what He values, serving as He serves, loving as He loves, giving as He gives. To know and grow in Jesus Christ, I must know and grow in the knowledge of God's written word to me. Therefore, I pledged to use a one-year Bible reading plan that will guide me through all the Scriptures in the next 52 weeks.
As I have been reading, my life is overflowing with the goodness of God's Word. He is teaching me. He is opening my eyes. He has reminded me once again that I was meant to live a life that thrives.
When this week I was reading in Genesis 5, I noted something I hadn't seen before in the list of genealogies. From the beginning down through verse 20, the pattern is the same. A man lived for a number of years, had a son, lived a number of years after that, having more sons and daughters. He then died. The pattern is repeated no less than five times. He lived, he had a son, he lived while having more sons and daughters, and then he died.
But in verse 21 the pattern noticeable changes. Enoch lived 65 years and had a son named Methuselah. Bam! The Scriptures do not then say that Enoch lived. It says he "walked with God" after having Methuselah. And in that moment of reading this remarkable contrast, God reminded me again: There is a great difference between just living and walking with God.
Walking with God goes to the very heart of why we were created. Not to just live. Not to just exist. But to thrive in a personal relationship with God in which we every day walk and live in Him.
I want to know Him more in 2012. I want to grow in Him in 2012. I want to walk with Him every step of the way so that my life thrives instead of just survives.
2 comments:
i have a blog (stumblingwithjesus.blogspot.com) and kept hitting the "next blog" button and came upon yours. I smiled 'cause i knew you were a baptist preacher by how you sounded. it's not a knock mind you, kinda like i know i'm speaking to someone from India when I'm on tech support. Anyway, nice bit of writing. What does it mean for you when you say walking w/ God? How does it look for you or your wife and kids walk w/ Him? How does your walk look when you screw up? Keep writing- looking forward to reading more as you grow in Him in 2012
I accept the challenge. I'm not going to try to catch up ... I'll just start today with this disciplined reading. Looking forward to setting apart the time for only Him.
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