My Mother's Coleslaw Recipe 🥗 Walk Before Me...

Genesis 17:1

‘When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless.”’

Wouldn’t it be great if we heard The Lord say, “Walk with Me.” to us?

Especially during those times of decision when we’re uncertain on what to do.

To have face-to-face with the Creator of the Universe.

So, how can we walk with God?

At the center of God’s relationship with Abraham was his covenant.

Whenever God makes a covenant, He promises something and calls for something in return.

God promised Abraham an amazing future, and God called Abraham to serve him faithfully. As a sign that he and his family belonged to God, Abraham was also to circumcise all the males in his whole household.

Abraham had an amazing faith walk. He literally, left his family home, and moved to the place where God led him (Genesis 12).

In an amazing way, God fulfilled that promise in Christ Jesus. Though most of us cannot claim a genealogy that reaches back to Abraham, as born-again-believers we are grafted into his family tree by faith in Jesus Christ.

As Paul declares in Galatians 3:7, “Those who have faith [in Christ] are children of Abraham.”

Communication is the key, just like in any relationship…

It’s a two-way street: One speaks and the other listens… then the other speaks and the one listens…

As the two learn more about one another… trust, vulnerability, and intimacy develop.

Learning to walk with God happens in the same way… by staying close to God through Jesus.

We do this by speaking to God through our prayers and listening to God as He speaks through His Word.

Simply, we begin to walk with God through prayer and reading the Bible.

But too often we approach God like a negotiator…  

We hand over a long list of requests and the reasons that we deserve them.

But truthfully, is this really the type of friendship we would want with someone?

Is this really a friendship? Would you even consider this a true friendship?

It probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise that God desires something so much more with each of us.

As I paraphrase John Wesley’s explanation about this: “Walk before me, and be thou (perfect) blameless - That is, upright and sincere…

That to walk before God, is to set God as first in our lives,  as we think, speak and act in everything.

It is to have a constant regard to His word, as our rule, and to His glory, as our end in all our actions.

The word blameless, or perfect as some translations say… literally means “whole.” 

God wanted all of Abraham, God wanted a total commitment. 

As He wants total commitment from us also.

Abraham, is the only person in the Bible to be called a friend of God,

Abraham talked with God – his praises, his doubts, and regrets… everything.

And he listened to God. Ultimately through it all, he trusted God...

And that’s what made him so great. His faith was honest and real.