He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 (ESV)
We see in the Old Testament a person who seemed to have reached the plateau of walking humbly with God. Genesis 5:24 reads, Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. The writer of Hebrews says this about Enoch: By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5 ESV) Enoch walked with God by faith. Why God took him we do not know with certainty, but it seems that God was so pleased with Enoch’s humble faith that he spared him from death.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 ESV) To humbly walk with God we must have faith. The apostle Paul and others repeatedly remind us that the “righteous one shall live (walk) by faith” (Hebrews 10:38; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11).
To walk humbly with God also means we must acknowledge our sin and realize that God alone provides for our atonement. We must also pursue a life of obedience and holiness. Matthew Henry wrote, “Every thought within us must be brought low, to be brought into obedience to God, if we would walk comfortably with him. We must do this as penitent sinners in dependence on the redeemer and his atonement.” King David’s repentant heart was an indication that he humbly walked with God (Psalm 51).
To walk humbly with God is to live a life wholly devoted to him. The greatest commandment says it best, And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30 ESV) We must continually be at the pleasure of our master, giving our bodies as a living sacrifice, doing all to the glory of God (Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 10:31).
To walk humbly with God we must also walk (live) according to the scriptures. Through the scriptures the apostle Paul has given us ample instruction how we are to walk humbly before God and others. He wrote that we are to walk properly as in the daytime (Romans 13:13), walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16), walk in good works (Ephesians 2:10), walk in a manner worthy of the calling (Ephesians 4:1), walk in love (Ephesians 5:2), walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8), walk as wise (Ephesians5:15), walk in a manner worthy of the Lord (Colossians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:12), walk in Christ (Colossians 2:6), and walk in wisdom (Colossians 4:5). The apostle John exhorts us to walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6).
There is no better example of walking humbly with God than we have in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus pleased his Father in all he did (Matthew 17:5). He did only what he saw the Father doing and spoke only what he heard the Father say (John 5:19; John 3:34). We must have his mind if we are to walk humbly with our God. . . .who, though he was in the form of God, . . . emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men . . . humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:4-8 ESV)
Are you pursuing a life that walks humbly before your God? Do you have the mind of Christ?
Scriptures for meditation:
Zephaniah 2:3