I am fortunate to live in a neighborhood that is laid out with walking trails that meander behind houses, beside lakes, and around playgrounds.  These trails are maintained, private, and well used.  Every time I walk, I meet couples of all ages, children on bicycles, people walking their dogs, and mothers pushing strollers.  Walking, at least in my neighborhood, appears to be “in.”  I sometimes pass joggers (rather, they pass me).  They always inspire me to pick up the pace and really feel the “burn.”

In case you might have missed the message in health magazines and even in newspapers and on television news reports, walking is the king of the exercises.  It was Hippocrates, the father of medicine, who said, “Walking is man’s best medicine.”  How did he know?  Today there is a wealth of research to prove that walking is good for you, not only to reduce major health problems but to prevent them in the first place.

The word walk has many meanings in addition to putting one foot in front of the other.  There are different walks of life.  We can walk in someone’s footsteps, or we can take a walk on the wild side.  Hopefully we all walk the straight and narrow way.

Your doctor may suggest that you get out and walk more.  Our heavenly Physician also has a prescription for us.  He says in Genesis 17:1, “I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect.”  To walk before God means to live our lives.  There’s nothing tentative or ambiguous about this command.  It’s not a suggestion, it’s an order.

Would you expect your doctor to tell you to walk just once in your life and that would be enough to keep your healthy?  Of course not.  He wouldn’t even tell you to walk just once a year, or once a month, either.  It’s the daily, consistent walking that does the most good.  God wants you to exercise your spiritual muscles and walk with Him every day, consistently.  He knows that is not only good for healing but good for prevention.

If sauntering and strolling is all you can manage, by all means keep doing that as often as you can.  But the best benefits come from Power Walking.  Power Walking engages all parts of the body—the feet, hips, torso, arms, head, neck and shoulders.  Our Heavenly Father wants us to present our bodies—every part of us—as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto Him, which is our reasonable service (Romans 12:1).

Walking with God may take us through some dark and gloomy places.  But we are not alone when we walk with Him.  Psalm 23:4 promises, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”

Don’t be put off by God’s command that you be perfect.  You may think there is no hope for you because you could never be perfect.  Look at it this way: A baby is born, and it is absolutely adorable.  Everybody loves a baby.  But think about it.  A baby slobbers, wets its pants, and can’t feed itself.  Is there something wrong with the baby?  No, the baby is perfect for its age.  It’s growing and learning things at an amazing rate.  Later the baby stands up and tries to walk, but it falls down over and over again.  Is there something wrong with the baby?  No again.  It’s doing what babies do when they learn to walk.  They wobble, teeter, and fall.  But they get back up and try again.  The baby is perfect for the stage it’s in.  Later, the little tyke becomes six years old and goes to school.  But after one week, two weeks, even three weeks, he still can’t read the newspaper or do calculus.  Is there something wrong with the child?  Not at all.  He is perfect for his age.

And that’s the way it is when we walk with God.  We walk with Him every day, sometimes strolling, sometimes doing a Power Walk.  Even when we find our path leading us where there are scary things that go bump in the night, He is there with us.  And we can be perfect in Him, perfect at every stage.  

Remember the words of the favorite, old hymn: “And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own.  And the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known.” 

God wants to bring health and vigor to our spiritual lives.  Take a hike—with Him.