When the Bible talks about how we are to live in relationship with God, it consistently uses one word:

Walk.

Consider, for example, Micah 6:8:

“He has showed you, O man, 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.”

Or consider the book of Ephesians, where Paul uses the word 6 times to describe how a Christ-follower is supposed to live with Jesus: “Walk worthy. Walk in love. Walk in good works.”

Or the very intriguing usage of the word comes in Genesis 5:21 about a curious character we know very little about:

“When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”

And then there is Galatians 5 which has quite a bit to say about walking, particularly walking in and with the Spirit of God. In this section of the letter, Paul is contrasting life in the Spirit with life lived in slavery to the flesh. It’s here that we get the well known verses regarding the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And it’s here in which Paul says that we should “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

Simple enough, right? We live our lives in motion, and as such, we should make sure we are walking in the way of truth and light – that of the Spirit of God. In walking forward on that path and with that constant companion, we will indeed not divert our path into the byways of the flesh.

And then he goes on with another walking reference:

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25).

It’s that particular wording that is interesting to me. Not only are we to walk by the Spirit, but we are to keep in step with the Spirit. Keeping in step with the Spirit assumes that we are living by the Spirit. It would stand to reason, then, that when we are living by the Spirit there might be times when we are not necessarily “in step” with the Spirit. In other words, and in using the metaphor of walking, it might be that our pace might vary from the Spirit’s pace in one of two ways:

1. We might walk too slowly and fall behind in laziness.

This is an easy mistake to make. We start falling behind when we assume that a life of faith is a life of passivity. That faith looks like just waiting around for God to bring the opportunities for His glory right into our path. If we adopt that posture, we might well fall behind the Spirit, for the life of faith is not stationary; rather, it’s a bold march forward assuming that as we walk with Jesus in His will and Word we will come across gospel-laiden opportunities as we are in motion.

In other words, we are meant to walk in God’s revealed will rather than be paralyzed in inactivity because of fear, doubt, or something else. We know more than enough of what life with Jesus looks like to keep going.

2. We might walk too quickly and run ahead in presumption.

But we might not only get out of step by walking too slowly; we might also get out of step by charging ahead. We do this when we assume we know what is best, what way is right, and what must be done. We can easily get out of step when we take matters into our own hands because, seeing a situation in front of us, we determine what action ought to be taken. Here, too, we are out of step, and here, too, we are on dangerous ground.

Keeping in step means avoiding the twin, but opposite pitfalls of laziness and presumption, and the answer to both is walking in faith. It’s faith that we are not walking aimlessly, nor are we walking alone. Instead, we are walking in step with the One who knows and will show us the way in the right time.