20 Bible Verses About Walking With God

Genesis 5:24

“Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”

Reflection: Enoch’s entry sits in the genealogy from Adam to Noah. The entries around it close with “and then he died” (Genesis 5:20, 5:27); his closes with “he was no more, because God took him away.” Verse 22 says that after Methuselah was born, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 6:9

“This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.”

Reflection: Noah is described with the same phrase used for Enoch, next to two other terms: righteous, and blameless among the people of his time. The verses that follow say the earth was corrupt and full of violence (Genesis 6:11), and it is to Noah that God then announces the flood.

Hebrews 11:6

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Reflection: The verse before this one is about Enoch: he was taken from this life and “commended as one who pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5). The writer then states the condition for pleasing God, faith, and names what it believes: that God exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Enoch’s taking is introduced with the chapter’s refrain, “By faith”.

Micah 6:8

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Reflection: Micah 6 opens as a court case, with the Lord lodging a charge against Israel before the mountains (Micah 6:1-2). A worshipper asks whether burnt offerings, thousands of rams, rivers of olive oil or even a firstborn child would be enough (6:6-7). The answer is three things, and the last is to walk humbly with God.

Deuteronomy 5:33

“Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.”

Reflection: Moses speaks these words after restating the Ten Commandments given in the covenant at Horeb (Deuteronomy 5:2). The verse before it adds, “do not turn aside to the right or to the left.” Walking here means keeping to the road the commands mark out, with life and long days in the land promised to those who do.

Psalm 1:1-3

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.”

Reflection: The psalm opens with three verbs, walk, stand and sit, each paired with a kind of company to avoid: the wicked, sinners and mockers. The blessed person’s delight is in the law of the Lord, meditated on day and night. The psalm ends with the two ways: “the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction” (Psalm 1:6).

Psalm 119:105

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

Reflection: Psalm 119 is a long prayer about God’s law. In this verse the word is a lamp that lights the feet and the path ahead. The next verse turns the light into a commitment: “I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Reflection: A father is teaching his son (Proverbs 3:1). Trusting the Lord is set against leaning on one’s own understanding, and the promise is that the Lord will make the son’s paths straight. Verse 7 continues the thought: “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.”

Psalm 84:11

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.”

Reflection: Psalm 84 is a song of longing for the courts of God’s house, and it calls blessed those “whose hearts are set on pilgrimage” (Psalm 84:5). The Lord is called a sun and a shield, and he withholds no good thing from those whose walk is blameless. The psalm closes with a blessing on “the one who trusts in you.”

John 8:12

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”

Reflection: Jesus says this while teaching in the temple courts, near the place where the offerings were put (John 8:20). The promise is tied to following him: whoever follows will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

1 Peter 2:21

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”

Reflection: Peter is writing to slaves who suffer under harsh masters (1 Peter 2:18-20). Christ’s steps are the pattern for them, and the next verses describe what those steps were: “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats” (2:23).

Colossians 2:6-7

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

Reflection: Where the New International Version reads “continue to live your lives in him”, the Greek verb is peripateo, to walk, and the English Standard Version has “walk in him.” Paul ties the walk to the way the Colossians began: as they received Christ Jesus as Lord, so they are to go on, rooted and built up in him. Verse 8 warns them against being taken captive by “hollow and deceptive philosophy.”

Ephesians 5:1-2

“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Reflection: The pattern for walking in love is Christ, who “loved us and gave himself up for us.” Paul calls the readers God’s dearly loved children and tells them to follow God’s example. A few verses later he uses the image of light: “you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8).

Galatians 5:16

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

Reflection: Paul sets walking by the Spirit against gratifying the desires of the flesh, and the next verse says the flesh and the Spirit are “in conflict with each other” (Galatians 5:17). The fruit of the Spirit follows in verses 22-23, and verse 25 restates the command: “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 5:7

“For we live by faith, not by sight.”

Reflection: Paul says that while he is at home in the body he is away from the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6), and that he would prefer to be “at home with the Lord” (5:8). Between those two statements he describes how he goes on in the meantime; the verb is peripateo, which the King James Version renders “we walk by faith, not by sight.”

1 John 1:7

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

Reflection: John’s message is that “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Claiming fellowship with God while walking in darkness is called a lie (1:6). Walking in the light brings fellowship with one another and cleansing by the blood of Jesus, and the next verses add confession: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins” (1:9).

3 John 1:4

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

Reflection: The elder writes to his friend Gaius (3 John 1:1). Believers had come and reported Gaius’s faithfulness to the truth, “telling how you continue to walk in it” (1:3). Walking in the truth here is something others can see and report.

Leviticus 26:12

“I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.”

Reflection: The promise comes among the blessings for keeping God’s decrees (Leviticus 26:3). God says he will put his dwelling place among the people and walk among them, and the next verse recalls the exodus: “I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high” (26:13). Paul quotes the promise in 2 Corinthians 6:16: “I will live with them and walk among them.”

Psalm 23:4

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Reflection: Through the first three verses of the psalm the Lord is spoken of as “he”: he leads, he refreshes, he guides along the right paths. In the darkest valley the psalmist turns to address him directly, “for you are with me,” and the shepherd’s rod and staff are named as the comfort.

Revelation 21:3

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’”

Reflection: John hears this voice after seeing a new heaven and a new earth and the new Jerusalem coming down from God (Revelation 21:1-2). The words repeat the covenant language of Leviticus 26:11-12, God’s dwelling place among the people and “they will be his people”, now placed in the new creation, where there will be no more death or mourning (21:4).