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Verse:And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. —Genesis 5:24, KJV
I sat in the pew, preparing to sing the hymn “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me.” It was a song my husband, the church band, and I had practiced for weeks.
As I prayed, Genesis 5:21–24 caught my attention. I thought about Enoch’s relationship with God and how profoundly close it had been.
First, Enoch was sixty-five when he started to walk with God. He was Methuselah’s father, and as a parent he understood the need for parents to turn to God at every juncture. Have I been calling on God on behalf of my child? I wondered.
Am I leaving her up to chance? The Bible says Enoch walked with God three hundred years—three hundred years? I compared this with my walk, highlighting the times I had allowed the rush of life and following my own ways to keep me from consulting Him on important as well as mundane matters. I reread the verse, and something else pierced my heart.
“Enoch walked with God: and he was not . . .” (verse 24, KJV).
Enoch’s walk was such a daily part of him that he decreased while God increased. Enoch did not lose his personality; it was not taken away.
He gladly gave up his will to God, knowing that to lose was gain.
To decrease was to experience immeasurable peace and security. Comparing this with myself, I realized Greta was not decreasing as much as she should.
There were times when she increased and pushed God into a supporting role—or out altogether. I looked at the text once more and found infinite love and reward. “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (verse 24, KJV).
God had enjoyed His conversations with Enoch so much that He took him in order to continue talking—face-to-face. What about my conversations with God? Does God enjoy them? Are they meaningful, or do I dominate with my demands and commands? Do I allow God to speak into my life, or do I try to speak into His? Would God want to see me face-to-face? I had weighed myself in the balance and had come up lacking.
As I sang, the song took on a whole different meaning.
It became a prayer of desperation, a recognition that my life needed to belong fully to God. We all need to make this our earnest cry: “I want Jesus to walk with me / All along my pilgrim journey / I want Jesus to walk with me.”*
Greta Michelle Joachim-Fox-Dyett
* African-American Spiritual, “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me.”