Learning To Walk Properly

Over the years, gradually developed increasing pain in my knees.  I attributed it to the years I spent as a plumber, straining to work in awkward positions in attics and under houses.  A friend gave me a book titled Walk Yourself Well, and the author, a physical therapist said many people develop an improper way of walking from watching others and as a result of injuries that causes most of the pain.  I read through it and began practicing some of the recommendations from time to time.  While they seemed to help a little, it was hard to focus on doing them every day.

A few months ago, I injured one of my knees, and could hardly climb stairs or walk a significant distance.  Determined to get where I could walk freely again, I dug out the book and began to focus on doing the exercises and practicing walking the way it recommended.  As a result, I can now walk several miles, with little pain except when I forget and fall back in to the old way of walking.  With practice, I expect to eliminate the pain entirely. 

In our Christian life, many of us have learned some bad habits that interfere with our spiritual walk, leading to sin.  While we received the Holy Spirit at salvation, we have not learned to walk in him.  consequently we struggle with fleshly attitudes and behavior.  As we’ve already seen, walking in the Spirit is simply a matter of letting him direct our attitudes.   It should come as naturally to the Christian as walking does to a mature adult.  Unfortunately, it is almost as hard to break those old spiritual habits as it has been for me to break my bad walking habits. 

Walking properly requires combining a large number of individual actions into a fluid and effective stride.  To overcome those bad habits it is necessary to focus on the individual actions, rather than trying to do everything at once.   When you first start it feels very awkward because you are not used to doing things that way and have to focus on each step.  With practice, the various actions become more natural feeling and require less effort.  Peter describes a similar process in learning to walk in the Spirit.  II Peter 1:1-4 tells us that we have been given everything that we need to have a proper spiritual life.

“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

When we have the Holy Spirit in our lives, he produces certain things in us.  Galatians 5:22-23 tells us, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”  Like a baby, we have everything we need to walk in the Spirit, but need to learn to use those things together to actually walk.  Just as the Baby first has to learn to stand, then to balance himself before he can walk, we have to practice the individual skills before we can become proficient at walking in the Spirit. 

II Peter 1:5-7 describes practicing each skill individually before we can put it all together.  “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.”  At first it may require a conscious effort to be good, because we have practiced sin for so long.  Virtue becomes more natural, we can learn more about what God wants, and as our knowledge grows we begin to understand the importance of temperance or self-control.   Eventually we will be able to put it all together and walk in the Spirit.  Until we reach that point, we are like a child who hasn’t learned to walk.

II Peter 1:8-11 tells us, “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.  Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

If we are to become healthy, productive Christians, it is crucial that we learn to walk in the Spirit just as it is critical for a baby to learn to walk if he is to be a healthy and productive member of society.  When we skip steps or don’t learn to do them properly, we assume we know how to walk in the Spirit until we begin to have problems.  Then we have to go back and learn the proper way to correct the problems.