In Step and in the Same Direction
In my daily prayer, I ask the Lord to help me walk with Him, in step, and in the same direction. Life’s pathway is not easy, when even the Christian is pulled away by so many distractions in this world. Distractions are on every hand. Your list of interferences may be different from mine, but I do not doubt you have just as many as I do. Perhaps, like me, you have succeeded in laying aside one particular distraction, only to get caught up in another on. The devil must enjoy throwing these obstacles in our spiritual pathway. “Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil …” !!! I can visualize a huge rock in the path, as the devil peeps around to see how I will get by the rock—if at all.
As a young Christian seventy-five years ago, long before television, computers, on-line shopping, social media, and everything possible at our fingertips, such did not constitute a foreign interference in my spiritual walk. But … Things such as measuring up to the aspirations of others, personal appearance, day-dreaming, romance, and many other things diverted me from pursuing Jesus’ footprints. As I grew into young adulthood, there were family issues, illnesses, making a living, and trying to fit the lifestyle of my peers—attempting to walk in their footprints, perhaps, instead of the Lord’s.
Such things are still around and much more. As an elderly Christian, I still have distractions. They may have taken on different faces than those from years past, but they remain to impede my journey with the Spirit when I allow them to grasp at me like blackberry brambles in an untended field. I doubt I am alone in these diversions.
“Follow in His Steps”
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
1 Peter 2: 21[ii]
All Christian believers encounter the brambles as we maintain our Christian walk. Perhaps considering what is at the end of the journey is a good idea. The Apostle Paul puts it well:
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3: 14
…Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12: 1-2
There is an “upward call,” and our Lord Jesus Christ is at the finish line. On the journey, it is easy to get entangled in our burdens and our lingering depravity. The remedy, then is to keep our eyes on the prize at the end: “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”
Distractions, interferences, obstacles, diversions: indeed, whatever stands in the way of our walk with Jesus, can only put rocks in our running shoes to impede our progress and get us out of step and into the brambles.
[iii]Walking with Jesus is part of the forward progress. The other half of the walk is walking as Jesus walked. What does walking as Jesus walked mean?
“Walk in the same way in which he walked”
Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
John 2: 6
- Jesus lived a sinless life. We can’t. We can, however, be attuned to our own sinful nature and rely on His Spirit to convince us of our sin, convict us, and lead us to confess and forsake the weights pulling us away from the walkway.
- Jesus had compassion. As God in the flesh, Jesus perfectly held the attributes of God in His person. Compassion is a result of God’s attribute of love. The good news is that such love is a “communicable attribute” for those who are in Christ.* We, as believers, can love, in measure, as Jesus loved. We can love others, including the unlovely and unlovable.
- Jesus went about doing good. The Holy Spirit can enable us to do good to others. Doing good to and for others is in our spiritual DNA, but when we are distracted by life’s brambles, we become self-absorbed.
- Jesus suffered and was sacrificed in our place. No, we can’t give our lives in order for another to enter God’s kingdom. Jesus already sacrificed Himself on our account. On the other hand, we give of ourselves in sacrificial ways so others may find Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
*A communicable attribute is one of God’s we receive by the Spirit as a Christian believer.
Challenge: Empty the rocks from your walking shoes, and get in step with Jesus.
Prayer: Holy Spirit of God, as I meet distractions on my heavenly walk, lift me over, pull me aside, and carry me when I have to go through the difficult places, because of Jesus and in His name, Amen.
Perhaps you are not walking with Jesus, because you have never put your faith in Him. If you were to face God today, and He asked you why He should let you into His heaven, what would you answer? What is the right answer? Do you say, “I’m a good person and try to keep the commandments.” Or perhaps, “I live in a Christian country, of course I’m a Christian.” Maybe you’d say, “I’m baptized…go to church…my parents are Christians,”…or some other earth-bound-self-initiated reason. The only way you will be given entrance to heaven is your faith in the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross for your sin. Only the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, who is fully man and fully God was perfect enough to take your place, die as a sacrifice, and be raised from the dead to give victory over eternal death for those who put their trust in Him. You need to Recognize you are a sinner, that all who sin can never measure up to God’s standard and deserve eternal punishment, Repent (turn away from sin and to Jesus), Receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and Rest in the knowledge that Christ alone has paid your debt.
[i] https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lMurL35GAvY/VIZEDyadkVI/AAAAAAAAM40/YxhFpVRkH30/s1600/keep-in-step.jpg
[ii] All scriptures from English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise indicated
[iii] https://gardentabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Wild-brambles-with-thick-sharp-thorny-branches.jpg
