Light of the World Today
There is a small town in northern Scotland called Arbroath, and it sits quietly beside the North Sea. In the early 1920s, a young man ran along those beaches every morning before dawn, not because a coach told him to, but because he believed his speed was a gift from God and that running was one of the ways he worshipped. His name was Eric Liddell.
In the summer of 1924, Eric stood at the peak of his athletic career. He was Britain's fastest man over one hundred metres and the favourite for Olympic gold in Paris. Then a schedule was posted, and the world shifted under his feet. The heats for his race were to be held on a Sunday. For Eric, Sunday was the Lord's Day, a day set apart for God alone. No Olympic gold medal, however brilliant, was worth stepping over that conviction.
He withdrew. The press was furious. Some called it fanaticism. His country felt betrayed. But Eric Liddell simply said that he believed God had made him fast, and when he ran he felt God's pleasure. He was not performing religion. He was walking with God in the most public and costly way imaginable.
He switched to the four hundred metres, a race he had far less preparation for, and on the day of the final he was handed a note in the tunnel before the race. It was from a masseur named Tom McKerchar, and it contained a verse from 1 Sam. 2:30 (NIV): those who honour me I will honour. Eric ran that afternoon and won, setting a world record.
He went on to serve as a missionary in China, was interned in a Japanese camp during the Second World War, and died there in 1945 just months before liberation. He gave his food rations to others who were sicker. He organised games for the children. He counselled the despairing adults around him. And by every account, he never stopped walking with God, not even in the last dark miles of his life.
That is where this devotional series begins. Not with a theological definition of faith, but with a man who actually lived it, a man who walked with God not because it was easy but because he had long since decided that it was the whole point.
Scripture Foundation
The phrase walking with God appears for the first time in Scripture in the fifth chapter of Genesis, tucked inside a long genealogy of names and lifespans that most readers tend to skim. But then, suddenly, Enoch appears.
"After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." Gen. 5:21 to 24 (NIV)
Notice what is not said. There is no record of a sermon Enoch preached, no miracle he performed, no battle he won. Scripture gives him only this: he walked faithfully with God. That was his whole story, and apparently it was a complete one.
The Hebrew word translated as walked here is halak. It carries the sense of a way of life, a consistent direction, a pattern of movement that defines who a person is. When the Old Testament says someone walked with God, it is saying that the whole orientation of that person's daily life was toward God. Not just their Sunday mornings. Not just their crisis moments. Their whole life.
The writer of Hebrews picks up Enoch's story and adds something important.
"By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: He could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Heb. 11:5 to 6 (NIV)
Walking with God is not complicated. It is earnest seeking of a God who genuinely rewards those who seek Him. It is a life lived in the direction of His presence, one day at a time, one decision at a time, over years and decades, until it becomes simply who you are.
Paul describes the same reality in the New Testament with language that is equally simple and equally profound.
"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." Col. 2:6 to 7 (NIV)
The word translated as live your lives is peripateo in Greek. It literally means to walk around, to conduct one's daily life. Paul is saying: the way you began your relationship with God is the way you continue it. You did not earn your way in, and you do not maintain it through performance. You receive, you remain, you become rooted, and out of that rootedness, gratitude flows naturally.
What the Walk Actually Looks Like
Sometimes we imagine that walking with God requires a life stripped of ordinary things, a monk's cell, silence from five in the morning, no distractions, no responsibilities. But Enoch had children. Eric Liddell had training schedules, press conferences, national expectations, and eventually a crowded internment camp. The walk with God does not happen somewhere outside ordinary life. It happens inside it.
The walk is made up of small, daily turnings toward God. It is the choice to begin the morning with prayer before the phone. It is the moment in the middle of a tense meeting when you quietly ask God for wisdom. It is the Sunday when you choose rest and worship even when the world tells you there are more productive things to do. It is the accumulation of ten thousand small decisions, each one an act of orientation.
Micah, one of the Old Testament prophets, gave us one of the clearest descriptions of what the walk looks like from the outside.
"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Mic. 6:8 (NIV)
Three things. Justice, mercy, and humility. None of them are private feelings. All of them are public actions. The walk with God shows up in how we treat people who have less power than us, in how we respond to people who have wronged us, and in how we carry ourselves before a God who is incomparably greater than we are. The walk changes the way you live Monday through Saturday as much as it changes your Sunday.
Applying This Today
Today is Day 1. The invitation is simply to begin, or to begin again if you have been away for a while. Here are three honest, practical ways to start walking with God today.
First: Begin before you do anything else. Morning:
Before you look at your phone, your messages, your calendar, or your obligations, take 30 minutes to acknowledge God's presence. You do not need a formula. Speak honestly. Tell Him what you are carrying into the day. Thank Him for something specific. Ask Him to be present in whatever is coming. That small act of turning toward Him before turning toward everything else is one of the most powerful daily habits a person can build.
Second: Identify one decision you are facing today where walking with God makes a practical difference. During the day:
It might be a conversation you are dreading, a choice about how to spend your time, a response to a message that tempted you to be less than honest. Bring that specific thing to God. Ask: what does walking faithfully with You look like in this moment? Then do what you hear.
Thirds: At the end of today, sit quietly for 15 minutes and ask God to show you one moment when He was present with you. Evening review:
You may be surprised by what comes to mind. Over time, this simple practice of looking back for God at the end of each day trains you to see Him more clearly as you move through the days that follow.
Key Takeaway for Day 1
• Walking with God is not a religious activity reserved for special occasions. It is the daily, consistent orientation of your whole life toward God, made up of small, real, honest choices.
• You do not have to be a trained theologian or a monk. Enoch was a father. Eric Liddell was a sprinter. Both of them simply decided that closeness to God mattered more than anything else.
• The walk begins with one step, taken today, in the direction of God's presence.
Memory Verse
"Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
Heb. 11:6 (NIV)