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Recently, I came across a website that made a conservative projection on the average number of steps we take every day, spanning 75 years and forgoing leap years. On average, factoring in age, we take 5,000 steps a day. At this rate, we take 1,825,000 steps a year and 136,875,000 steps in 75 years. Now mind you, these are conservative estimates. Some estimate that we walk somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000 steps on a daily basis.
When Beverly and I were walking along the beach on Daytona Beach Shores, I went into nerdy mode and began wondering about the number of footprints we had made in the sand. This lead me to thinking about how many footprints of faith and how many footprints of flesh (periods of backsliding or sinful behavior) I had left in the "sand" since first trusting in Christ as my personal Savior and Lord in January of 1976.
Based on the 1,825,000 steps a year estimate, I have taken over 63,875,000 steps in my Christian walk. Now this devotional is not about counting steps like we do calories but looking at our daily steps or path from a different perspective because each step we take represents a walk that is either pleasing or unpleasing to God. And our steps, I believe, are not only tracked in heaven (Job 31:4, 34:21), but our steps reveal a lot about us. And God certainly desires for our steps to be of faith rather than of flesh.
Here is the challenge. The verb “walk” in our verse for today would argue that we don’t always walk in the Spirit. The Galatian believers were having “lust of the flesh” issues from the old sin nature because they were not walking in the Spirit. “Walk” is a present imperative in the Greek, meaning it is a habitual conduct; it never stops, and it is commanded, not optional – “(you) keep on walking.” There is no such thing as “tithing” of our steps to God, and the rest are ours to walk as we please!
So how do we make footprints of faith? To better understand this is to see what it is not, footprints of flesh. “Walk in the flesh (sinful nature), and you shall fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Walk in the flesh (apart from the Spirit), and you are going to sin; it's certain. Walking in the flesh is easy and comes natural. In other words you don't have to work at it. Conversely, when we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. There is guaranteed victory over the flesh. This is more challenging because it cuts against the grain of our sinful nature, and it only comes supernaturally via the Holy Spirit when we yield to His leading away from those sinful desires.
Getting victory over the flesh or the sin nature requires the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within the heart which happens at regeneration (Rom 5:5; 2 Cor 1:22; Gal 4:6; Eph 1:13; 3:16; 4:30; Titus 3:5). This is where it all begins. Walking in the Spirit is submitting to the control or leadership of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18) for guidance and power as a rule of life. This is the choice aspect of faith in the daily routine of living in the here and now. Though we have the entire person of the Holy Spirit at regeneration, being able to walk in the Spirit and produce the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) depend upon our yielding in obedience to Him continually. Power comes and goes because of our willful disobedience, but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is forever, even though disobedience disrupts the power to overcome fleshly or sinful appetites and grieves the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18; 4:30).
Yielding control to the Holy Spirit brings about a promise – “you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh [in the bad sense of the word, Eph 2:3; 2 Pet 2:18; 1 Jn 2:16].” “You shall not fulfill” or you will not fulfill is very emphatic. Victory over sin is assured. You will not fulfill (complete or gratify) the desires of the sin nature in outward action. It is vital the Holy Spirit is in control because Jesus has removed the penalty of sin, which is eternal death, at salvation, but the presence of sin has not been removed from the believer.
Upon regeneration we simply migrated from being a lost sinner to being a saved sinner, from condemnation to no condemnation (Rom 8:1) . Though this migration is vast from a spiritual perspective (Eph 5:8; Col 1:13; Psa 103:12), we still remain sinners, uncondemned sinners, possessing a nature with all of its lusty appetites for sinning against God this side of eternity for the sin nature was not eradicated at salvation. Those believers who are giving in and feeding their fleshly impulses are those who have not yielded in obedience to the Holy Spirit. They are still caving in to the pressures of sinful lusts rather than giving over control of their life to the Spirit. This is a serious and dangerous way to live for a believer.
Wrestle with the flesh we will (Rom 7:18-25), but we need not give in to our fallen human nature because " He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 Jn 4:4). The world, the flesh, and the devil are always trying to drag us away from God toward that which is temporal, sensual, and perishing. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that those things which can be seen are temporal, and the things which cannot be seen are eternal.
Believers can overcome personal sins and experience real victory over personal sins now by allowing the Holy Spirit to be actively involved in their lives. It remains a choice with the individual believer to choose to have a daily dependence upon the Holy Spirit in order to walk pleasing unto the Lord and worthy of Him or to choose to listen to the world, the flesh, and the devil. We can choose to glorify God in our bodies, or we can wallow in the mire as those who don't know the Lord.
Wrestle with the flesh we will (Rom 7:18-25), but we need not give in to our fallen human nature because " He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 Jn 4:4). The world, the flesh, and the devil are always trying to drag us away from God toward that which is temporal, sensual, and perishing. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that those things which can be seen are temporal, and the things which cannot be seen are eternal.
Believers can overcome personal sins and experience real victory over personal sins now by allowing the Holy Spirit to be actively involved in their lives. It remains a choice with the individual believer to choose to have a daily dependence upon the Holy Spirit in order to walk pleasing unto the Lord and worthy of Him or to choose to listen to the world, the flesh, and the devil. We can choose to glorify God in our bodies, or we can wallow in the mire as those who don't know the Lord.
“Live your whole life in the Spirit [steps of faith, added] and you will not satisfy the desires of your lower nature [steps of flesh, added]” (Gal 5:16, Philips).
Paul states in Gal 5:25, “If [or since, added] we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” The Levitical law could never impart life nor was it intended to be the rule of life for the Christian. Our eternal life is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and our rule of life for the new life is according to that same Spirit.
How many of our 5,000 daily steps are footprints of flesh (negative, temporal) or footprints of faith (positive, eternal)? If “the steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD” (Psa 37:23), I would suspect that all 5,000+ steps are meant for Him as we take up our cross daily and follow Him (Lk 9:23; 1 Pet 2:21). We need to make every step count for eternity as long as we have breath, and the only way to do that is to yield control of our mind and body to the Holy Spirit in our walk (Rom 12:1-2), otherwise, we are out of control, and temporal values don’t amount to anything in eternity.
1Jn 5:4-5 states, "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"
May this be our prayer today, "Direct my [5,000] steps [today] by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me" (Psa 119:133). The Holy Spirit is willing, ready, and able to do this for us! <><
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1Jn 5:4-5 states, "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"
May this be our prayer today, "Direct my [5,000] steps [today] by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me" (Psa 119:133). The Holy Spirit is willing, ready, and able to do this for us! <><
