When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;walk before me, and be blameless. Genesis 17:1 ESV
From the beginning to the end, the story of the Bible is the story of journeys. From Ur to Canaan, from Egypt to the land of promise, from Babylon to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Rome. But not only is the Bible about outward journeys, it’s about inward journeys. From sinner to saint, from stranger to heir, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. The Biblical message says there is someplace for you to go and it’s not where you started. In fact, it is infinitely better than where you started. Walk on.
This idea of moving forward, of going someplace else, is at the heart of the whole Biblical understanding of reality. Paganism, ancient or modern, views life as cyclical. We came from nowhere and we are going nowhere. You’re born, you live, you die. That’s that. The Bible says, “No!” Life, like walking, is progressive, intentional, and forward-looking. There is a destination.
What is the destination? Heaven? Well, look at the Scripture printed above. “Walk before me and become…” what? Many modern versions say “Blameless.” The King James, or Authorized, Version said “Perfect.” The idea of the word is to be complete, not deficient. I like to say it this way; “become all that you were meant to be.” That’s the goal. That’s what we are headed for, the achievement of God’s vision of Christ in us. We are sheep trotting contentedly down the road with our shepherd behind us. His staff taps us on the shoulder if we turn the wrong direction and his crook lifts us out of the ditch if we have fallen in. We are on the way to becoming all he has meant us to be. Wow!
What is the next step for you? Maybe it’s something as simple as a new consistency in your devotional life. Maybe the Lord is challenging you to a new persistency in prayer for the world, for your neighbors. Maybe He is calling you to new physical self-denial. Maybe you need to be saying to the Lord, “What is the next step You want me to take?”
To quit reaching for more conformity to Christ and His character is to miss what the Christian life is all about. Walk on.
Called To Be Transformed 