A feel-good song from 1983 to listen to anytime is Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. Katrina feels like walking in the sunshine because the person she loves shares the same feeling. As Christians we can feel like this every day as the one we love, our God, loves us more than we can imagine.
However, the sunshine days may not always be there for us as doubts and fears can take over causing us to be fearful of moving forward. This isn’t where God wants us to be, he wants us to move forward and grow in our Faith. In Hebrews 6:1 Paul says, “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity”. We must try to learn and move forward in our faith!
‘You’ll never walk alone’ is an anthem sung by Liverpool football fans, and it is also true for Christians. We know that God always walks with us but more than this we are told to walk with others. In Ecclesiastes 4:10 King Solomon says, ‘For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!’. We need to share life’s journey with someone else because when we do have doubts and fears we can rely on that someone to help us walk in the sunshine again.
But who do we walk with? I love the book of Proverbs as it has some common-sense teaching. King Solomon who wrote it was wise indeed. In Proverbs 13:20 he says, “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm”. If we walk with people making poor decisions very soon, we may be making similar decisions. This isn’t to say we don’t love those who are far from God, it simply means we can love and support them without having to agree with them. Perhaps we can be their wise person!
If we choose to walk with a wise Christian and observe their actions, we can ask them questions, hopefully learn from them and in time become wiser ourselves. Then for those that eventually walk with us, hopefully they will become wiser too.
This is why being a Christian is a 24-7 role. People see how we behave, what we say and what we do, and if we are falling short, they can be led to believe that it is ok to do those things as Christians. It can even be little things we do that can have a negative impact on people and turn them away from church, and sometimes God. This stops them moving forward.
Walk with the wise and learn from and adopt Jesus’ way and your wisdom will increase, with your faith growing stronger. Pray that God will increase your wisdom and that through it you will help others find and build their faith too.
So keep on walking…in that sunshine.