Walk by the Spirit
I want us to take a walk together — not a jog, not a run, not a bike ride, not a short drive — a walk. When was the last time you felt your soul walk — not rushing from one responsibility to another, one distraction to another, one day to another, one week to another? Souls like ours were not made to hurry; they were made to walk.
Why do we talk about “walking with Jesus”? Because when the Word became flesh and dwelled among us, he literally walked everywhere he went. Think about that. Jesus could have come now, in the 21st century, with highways and airplanes, with smartphones and highspeed wifi. But when the Son of God came, he walked, and he walked, and he walked. He slowed down to hold children. He slowed down to visit with strangers. He slowed down to pray. He lived the greatest, fullest, most fruitful life ever lived, and he never felt what it was like to move 25 miles an hour.
But we live in a land of hurry. Our society is aggressively trying to speed up everything — speed up production, information, recovery, the economy. But to really live — to know, enjoy, and follow Jesus — we need to learn to live at a pace that is human. In other words, we need to learn to walk again.
2 Corinthians 5:7: “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
Ephesians 2:10: “We are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 5:2: “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”
Colossians 1:10: “Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.”
Colossians 4:5: “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.”
In short, Galatians 5:16, “Walk by the Spirit.” Embrace the uncomfortably slow pace of being human, of having relationships, of meeting with God. Make friends with your finitude. Leave room for interruptions. Make regular room for rest.
I was confronted with this personally when the pandemic began. Events were canceled. Work was remote. Social gatherings were discouraged. Schedules were suddenly clear. And yet my heart was still busy, scattered, restless — as if my heart couldn’t slow down to reality. I regularly felt behind when I wasn’t and rushed when I didn’t need to be. Life had slowed to a crawl, but I was still in a hurry. I believe one of many good purposes God had in the hardships of the last year was to break some of us, including me, from hurry. We were made to walk.
But we don’t just walk; we walk by the Spirit. Paul says in the same chapter, “You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. . . . Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” In other words, we don’t slow down to serve ourselves — our desires, our hobbies, our dreams, our comfort. We slow down so that we can love God and love others. We slow down to be more available to others — body, mind, heart, and ears — like Jesus was. We slow down to be a better, more devoted spouse; a better, more intentional roommate and friend; a better, more patient parent; a better, more engaged neighbor; a better, more faithful disciple of Jesus.
And so my exhortation for us, Cities Church, is that we slow down and walk by the Spirit.