Stepping in the Light

“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Genesis 5:24

Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam. His father’s name was Jared and he had a son named Methuselah who lived to be 969 years old, the oldest person recorded in scripture. Not much else is known about Enoch, but he was surely unique in human history.

Enoch walked with God. We understand this to mean that Enoch lived his life with a constant awareness of God. He was always conscious of his Creator and made his daily decisions based upon his knowledge of God’s character and his understanding of God’s desires for mankind. Enoch must have understood the value of prayer, and he evidently spent a great portion of his time talking with God.

Enoch’s attitude and lifestyle attracted God’s attention, and God did something very special for Enoch. Hebrews 11:5 says that, “…Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and…before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Enoch’s faith in God was extraordinary and God rewarded his faith by allowing him to pass from this life to the next without having to experience death.

Sometimes it seems difficult for us to measure our own devotional life, but we can see from this story that God is certainly measuring it. How aware are you of God’s presence in your life? How much do you pray? Enoch’s example should encourage us to walk closer with the Lord today.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1

God created everything. He is the Creator of all things. He is creative in His very nature. In His creation, there was perfection. Everything was meticulously designed, and He created everything in the perfect order. He did not make the birds before He made the atmosphere (firmament) for them to fly in, nor the cows before He gave them grass to eat. It was all within His perfect plan.

It was Satan’s desire to ruin God’s paradise on earth. He understood that mankind was God’s purpose for everything that He had created, so Satan attacked Adam and Eve. He did not have any other reason to try to destroy the human race except that we were the object of God’s love.

Adam and Eve made a choice. They could have rejected the temptation of the evil one and obeyed God’s one command, not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But instead, they listened to Satan’s lie and in taking of the fruit of the tree, they plunged the human race into the bondage of iniquity and brought the entire creation under the curse of sin.

As we begin a new year, how would you categorize yourself? Are you creative or destructive in your nature and actions? Are you more like God, or more like Adam and Eve? What could you begin in your life this year that would bring glory to God?