Walking With God in the New Year
By John David Hicks
Jesus says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20 NKJV). God wants to fellowship with you. Out of that fellowship you will do and see what the father is doing.
Jesus’ times of prayer were not seeking God’s will but seeking fellowship, His presence. When you read the Gospels you see that Jesus has a message and put it into practice. He is doing what God is doing.
To walk with God and live in His presence is the birthright of every believer. If you don’t grasp this truth, your quiet time will turn into a routine Bible study and prayer. You will miss “the path of life… joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11).
When you walk with someone, you get to know them. When you go through problems and struggles together, their character is revealed and you are bonded together in relationship. Your faith is tested in difficulty. When you are assaulted and come out trusting, your walk with God takes on a new dimension. When you know the character of God, no proof is necessary for your belief. If you question God’s character, no proof is sufficient. Faith is born out of a relationship.
We are commanded to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Formal, audible prayer would be impossible to carry out. The Lord wants a constant attitude of prayer in midst of your daily living. In this way you maintain a continuous unbroken fellowship with God. You are totally dependent on God (John 15:5). When you acknowledge your reliance on God and realize His presence is within you, then it is natural to pray frequent, spontaneous, short prayers.
As you pray without ceasing engage the Lord in all your activities. As a businessperson, as a student or as a parent, continually look up and have an inner dialogue with God. For “There is one Lord…Who is above all [Sovereign over all], pervading all and [living] in [us] all” (Ephesians 4:5-6 AM). “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
John Wesley, in Works, viii p. 343, explains his experience of walking with God in the third person: “[H]is heart is ever lifted up to God at all times and in all places. In this he is never hindered, much less interrupted, by any person or thing. In retirement or company, in leisure, business, or conversation, his heart is ever with the Lord. Whether he lie down or rise up, God is in all his thoughts; he walks with God continually, having the loving eye of his mind still fixed upon Him, and everywhere “seeing him that is invisible.”
“In learning to walk with God there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride,” says Oswell Chambers, “but when we have got into it, the only characteristic that manifests itself is the life of God. The individual man is lost sight of in his personal union with God, and the stride and the power of God alone are manifested.” Choose to “pray without ceasing” this Year.