Grace Chapel

This morning we will wrap up the series, “What God Requires.” We have looked into the requirements of to do justly, to love mercy, and now we finish by taking a deeper look into what it means to walk humbly with your God.

1) The Holy Spirit tells us in the last portion of this Scripture to walk humbly with your God. As I was studying this passage, it was interesting to see how much could be gleaned from this phrase, “To walk humbly with your God.” The first part is to walk. The translation means to associate and be familiar with. This phrase was utilized later in the Old Testament to describe the Patriarchs’ relationship with our Heavenly Father. When someone described a person as walking with God, what they meant was this person lived their life in a continuous state of becoming ever more familiar and closer with the Lord. This should describe our individual and corporate relationships with Jesus Christ. With each passing moment we are being changed from glory to glory, as we walk closer with Him, and we become more familiar with His ways and His plan.

2) The next part of the phrase we will focus on is to walk humbly. The translation here of course indicates modesty and lowliness, which is what most of us think about when we hear the word humility, but another picture this translation paints is that of one who walks in love with their Creator. In our relationship with the Lord, we don’t strut around like a rooster or seek to put down others to make ourselves feel more holy. Instead, we recognize our complete and total dependence on the Lord for everything we need. Salvation comes from the Lord. Our daily provisions come from the Lord. The very breath we breathe comes from the Lord. When we live our lives in this reality, we become less self-sufficient, and more reliant on the Lord. When you think about your relationship with the Lord, are there areas in your life where you tend to be more self-sufficient? As you have been walking with the Lord, can you tell that you have become more reliant on Him, and less reliant on your own abilities? The Word tells us that God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. A broken and a contrite spirit, God has yet to deny, so for the person who always comes to the Father, and looks to Him as their source for everything, they will always find that their Father will not refuse them.

3) Now we look at the next part of the phrase, which is the word with. To walk humbly with your God. When I first read this Scripture I immediately thought about being with God, and not walking separate from Him. This is in line with the translation, but there is actually more to it. The word with can also mean towards (in relationship). Not only are we supposed to be walking humbly with our Lord, we are also to be walking humbly towards Him. The picture I get in my mind is that of two people walking together, while also walking closer (the distance between them getting shorter and shorter).

4) When you put all of this together, it paints a more detailed picture of what it means to walk humbly with your God: We live our lives in communion and fellowship with God our Father, through Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit, and with each step we take together, we become more familiar with Him, His ways, and His plan for our lives (Romans 12: 1, 2). Slowly, but surely, our attitude of self-reliance gives way to becoming more dependent upon Him, His grace and love, and His provision for us. We may have begun this walk with Him with a certain distance between us, but we become more and more comfortable getting closer to Him, seeking to be in His presence. There is this growing longing to get as close to Him as we can. I think about Moses as a template of mortal man and His growing relationship with the Father. When God called to Moses from the burning bush, Moses kept his distance. Moses even tried to get out of the calling that God had placed on his life, but as the years rolled on and God showed Himself faithful to Moses, Moses went from serving God from a certain distance, to spending significant amounts of time in the presence of the Lord. Moses even got to the point where He even asked the Lord if He could see His glory. Moses was so close to the Lord, that the Lord laid His hand over Moses’s face, as He allowed Moses to see His passing glory as He walked by. This kind of intimacy and closeness did not happen overnight, and this should encourage every one of us who desire to get closer to God. Don’t let frustration hinder you, but allow your desire for Him to drive you; drive you right into His presence, and into His waiting arms. He has promised to never leave us and to never forsake us (Psalm 145: 17 – 21).

Walking humbly with our God is fellowship and relationship with Him. Not just sharing our lives with Him, but allowing His Holy Spirit to live in us, to dwell in our hearts, and to guide our every step. We serve a loving and faithful God who wants to have communion with each one of us. Really living is being as close to Him as we can get, and yielding our will to His.