Keeping in Step With God

“Enoch walked with God” is what we read in these verses. Could it not also have been written: “Enoch kept in step with God!” He did not rush ahead of his God, nor did he lag behind. He not only walked with God under sunlit rays of grace, but also in the darkness of trial and chastening. He was on his God’s side not only in times of general godliness, but also in times of apostasy, as we read in Jude’s letter (v. 17-18). And what was the blessing of this walk and this perseverance with God?

1. Enoch kept in step with God, and then God took him away to be with Him. In our walk with God, we can accomplish a great rapture away from ourselves. Before we are raptured to God, we must be raptured both from ourselves and from all we own (Luke 20:35-36).

2. Enoch kept in step with God, and then he was no more. In our walk with God, we too will be no more. We disappear into God.

The men who knew us before as haughty, self-willed and unkind, will not find us so today, just as Joseph’s brothers no longer knew him; for grace had made a dreamer into a saviour (Gen. 42:8).

3. Enoch kept in step with God, and it brought him a testimony that he pleased God. The motive of all his actions was to please God. Doing what was right in the eyes of God was his chiefest joy. In your walk with God, you learn to know God and to love Him above all things.

4. Enoch kept in step with God, and this gave his life and his message a decided purpose. He himself waited for the coming of the Lord, and he proclaimed Him as the coming one. Unity and determination are always a characteristic of those who walk with God.

We find only a few characters in the Bible who have continually kept in step with God all the way. Only two men of the 600,000 that God brought out of Egypt kept in step with Him all the way to the land of Canaan (Numbers 26:65). And how often have we who are in communion with him neglected to keep in step with him. How often have we rushed ahead of Him or been left behind; we went with Him until we saw the cross and the humiliation, but then we immediately sought to save ourselves and take back control of our own lives. And how often and how many times have we acted contrary to His mind and character. We can only admire His patience, that He has not left us behind; but He has always waited for us, until we have once more got back on track from our waywardness and self-absorption. But as of today, we must be done with these “Zigzag” meanderings. We must completely sever the connection with our own self life, as Jesus did on the cross (Romans 6:6). We want to be among the few who keep in step with Jesus in His self-denial, in His sacrifice, in His humiliation. Thousands followed Him as He entered Jerusalem, but only a few kept in step with Him as He was led out of the city through the second gate and was considered a transgressor. Their names are recorded as keeping in step with Jesus all the way to the cross. Of the 5,000 men He taught and fed, and the women, there were only a few. Paul kept in step with Jesus in the fellowship of his sufferings and into the fellowship with Him in His death. Philippians 3:10. And in our time, it is doubly important to keep in step with Jesus, for the footsteps of the coming bridegroom can already be heard in the signs of the times.