Most days I try and go for a walk, weather permitting. I don’t do it for fitness reasons, although it keeps me fit, but it’s something I know the Lord loves me to do and believe it or not He enjoys it more than I do.
One of my favourite walks is launched from East End Beach, near the mouth of the Te Henui River, New Plymouth. The best time to go is when it’s low tide so that you walk next to the ocean along a long stretch of sandy beach. It takes about 60 minutes there and back, and could go for a lot longer if you crossed over the next river.
If the tide is too far in I can turn right and walk up a track next to the river as far as I want, even to where I use to live as a child in Awanui Street. If it’s really blowing a gale force ‘southerly’ I can turn left and go along the walkway next to the cliff face, completely sheltered from the wind.
The walk begins on the busy walkway, frequented by joggers, strollers, talkers, cyclists, e-scooters, skate boarders, and many dog walkers.
In December the banks of the river are decked with Pohutukawa trees in full bloom. They are appropriately called New Zealand’ Christmas Trees. After crossing the Te Henui River bridge I quickly get onto the beach far from the maddening crowd so that I can start talking to the Lord without any distractions.
I see many going for walks along the beach too with their dog (DOG) and I say to myself that I am going for a walk with my GOD. The trouble is that when you are walking with your dog, they are always wanting to stop and sniff, chase other dogs, get into trouble and especially want you to throw them a stick, time after time after time. You also have to make sure they don’t do a poo on the beach which you are obligated to scoop up. It can all be quite distracting and exhausting if you are wanting to be alone with the Lord. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when you are called to go on a ‘Praise Walk’ you want to give Him your full attention. The trouble with people today is that we love to multitask, but when we do, something always gets second best, for the bible says that we can’t serve two masters.
"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” Matthew 6:24
I want to give the Lord my full attention. As it says in the book of James, we shouldn’t be ‘double minded’ and it’s hard to set the Lord always before you while you are walking your dog. You have to make a choice between GOD or DOG. As far as I am concerned its a ‘no brainer.’
The other day I walked the full length of Fitzroy Beach and had a wonderful time with the Lord. I felt Him say that He enjoyed it as much as I did. I also felt Him say that He’d love His Children's full attention, but so many are distracted.
We may go for a run and a pray, which is OK, but again it’s for another motive - to keep fit. We may go for a walk and take photos and ‘selfies’ as we go, which is OK too, but again He’s not getting our full attention. You may go with others and end up talking all the way with a few ‘Praise the Lords’ thrown in for good measure. There is a time for that, but when was the last time you went for a walk with the Lord alone giving Him your full attention?
You may take your phone with you and unintentionally end up talking to someone for most of the walk. I’m convinced that the Lord absolutely loves us going for a walk with only one thing in mind and that is to talk to ‘Him’ and let Him talk to you without anything else interfering. I think the Lord is finding it hard to find an undistracted follower now days, for we specialise in ‘multitasking’. It ends up with us being with the Lord plus listening to music, plus being on our phone or posting a photo of what we are eating, seeing or something funny we have received from a friend.
I’m encouraged to set myself apart by this verse in Psalm 45:10-11.
“Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.” KJV
“Now listen, daughter, pay attention, and forget about your past. Put behind you every attachment to the familiar, even those who once were close to you! For your royal Bridegroom is ravished by your beautiful brightness. Bow in reverence before him, for he is your Lord!” TPT
It says that the King greatly desires the beauty of His Bride, the Church. He greatly desires our beauty? How can this be? What have we got to offer Him? With an unrenewed mind you will not understand how He would want your time and undivided attention. The word says that He does, ‘let God be true and every man a liar.’ He says that we are married to Him and He wants us to leave the familiar and give our attention completely to Him. Paul made this statement in Ephesians 5:23 that some things are hard to understand. It’s hard to understand how God Almighty could find us so attractive and want to spend time with us.
“I know this is hard to understand...” Ephesians 5:23 TLB
Proverbs says that we should trust the Lord with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding. Proverbs 3:5-6. Our understanding says that we are nothing, but the word says that we are highly prized by the Lord. We are something so precious to Him that He was willing to die on the cross for us so that we could be His very own. It’s only by the blood of Christ that we can be made acceptable to Him.
When you first fell in love, all you wanted to do was be alone with your beloved. For me it was my wife. I was jealous of her company. Just being with her was enough. I could miss meals easily or lose sleep, for I was empowered by the ‘first love.’ Did you know that the Lord always feels this way towards you? He never gets tired or falls out of love like we do. Every day when you wake up He is looking forward to having fellowship with you. Do we give Him your ‘first love’ or just the dregs at the end of the day?
As you read the word of God and see how He feels about you, you can renew your mind to believe these truths with all your heart. As you begin to know Him more and more, you soon see all sorts of other things that may seem OK, but they distract you from experiencing His love and giving Him your best. It says that in these Last Days the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12) and there is so much around us now days to take away our love for Him.
I know some of you will find what I am saying now hard to understand but even a passion for witnessing can sometimes get in the way of your love for Him. There are times for that, but when was the last time you went for a walk just to give Jesus all your love and attention? Forgetting people and problems and just worshipping Him for who He is and what He’s done. He is your Lord, your Royal Husband.
Psalm 100:4 says that we enter His gates with thanksgiving and come into His courts with praise. As we start thanking and praising Him, we enter into another dimension, into His courts, even though we are still here on earth.
The obvious verse that comes to mind while walking on the beach is found in the Psalms.
“How precious to me are your thoughts, a God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand — when I awake, I am still with you.” Psalm 139:17-18
How amazing is that? God’s thoughts towards us are more in number than the grains of sand on the seashore. Trillions and trillions of them. There are boulders on the beach as well, and I consider some thoughts that God has for me, far greater than the average blessing. What about the thought that we have been given ‘His Glory?’ We are loved by the Father as much as Jesus is loved. We are now ‘seated with Him’ in Heavenly Places? He has given us all that He is and all that He has?
Another verse that comes to mind is that the Lord is greater than all the waves crashing on the seashores of the world. Waves are incredibly powerful and destroyed the armies of Egypt, but God is greater.
“The mighty oceans thunder your praise. You are mightier than all the breakers pounding on the seashores of the world!” Psalm 93:3-4
My walk often reminds me of the days of my youth. As I cross the bridge I look down on the pool where parents used to take their children in the 1950’s. There was no walkway then, just a sandy beach next to the river. One day before I could swim I was there with my mother amongst a crowd of other children and went out my depth and began to drown. No one noticed, but praise God my mother did and charged down the beach and saved me.
As I go past the East End Club House I remember days in my teens when I was really depressed as I sat next to the sea there and wondered what was wrong with me. When I pass the Fitzroy Club House I remember the amazing days when my cousins and I used to body surf here and later surf the big waves. There are mixed feelings of my high school days when I was conscious of my skinny body and not having a girl friend like my mates did.
The beach is littered with drift wood because of it being between two rivers. When in flood lots of trees and branches are washed down the rivers from the bush inland. It gives children material to make some amazing houses. I joke with friends over seas that I have built a retirement home. Air conditioned with sea views and lots of sand for my cat. When we were young you were allowed to light fires on the beach and I can remember the times cooking sausages around a camp fire at night. What fun eating sandy sausages. The pic below is young Adrian, my cousin Paul and me lighting a fire on Fitzroy Beach at night.
The goal on my walk is to get to the end of the beach and touch the row of boulders, and then turn back. If the tail wind is a bit strong I can then return on the walkway which is a lot more sheltered, the only drawback is those irritating cyclists.
On the other side of the boulders is the Waiwakaiho River where we used to go white baiting as kids and also catch trout further up the river. The surf here can get really big and all the ‘big gun surfers’ go there. In the early days you had to be really brave as we had no rope attached to our boards back then and this break is a long way out. I never plucked up the courage to go out there and preferred Fitzroy Beach.
The walk back is beside the Fitzroy Golf Course that my cousin Paul and I used to play countless games of golf on. The view of the mountain makes it very picturesque. I was a expert golf ball finder too and spent a lot of time here stomping in the grass and crawling through the lupins to find balls. When I was young, balls were expensive and not so easily available as they are now. I used to sell them and keep myself in cigarettes and sweets while at school. Recently my cousin Paul and I had a reunion game together after 50 years and I won. (Just saying.)
When I was 50 I remember walking on this walkway after coming back from England. I was wondering what I had done with my life and the future looked bleak to me. The word says that His plans are always good for us. I had this promise in my heart and quoted it in the face of my fears and its proved true many times since.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
It’s amazing what has happened since then, for our God is a good and faithful God. The secret to a successful life is to have the word of God in our hearts. As David said in Psalm 45, that His heart was full and overflowing. A Praise Walk can be even more richer with lashings of the word flowing out of our hearts. If there is little in there then the Spirit doesn’t have much to work with.
“My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.” Psalm 45:1
“My heart bursts its banks, spilling beauty and goodness. I pour it out in a poem to the king, shaping the river into words:” (The Message)
My heart is on fire, boiling over with passion. Bubbling up within me are these beautiful lyrics as a lovely poem to be sung for the King. Like a river bursting its banks, I’m overflowing with words, spilling out into this sacred story. (The Passion)
King David then goes on to worship the Lord saying, that Jesus is fairer than the children of men, far surpassing the Sons of Adam.
I am trying to provoke you to be a worshipper too and go for Praise Walks with your God. Come with no ulterior motives, singing praises to the one who made you and loves you beyond your wildest dreams. Do it for the ‘audience of one’ and not trying and be a witness to others while you are doing it. This is a special time for Him and Him alone. Come giving Him your full attention, for when you seek Him with ALL your heart you will find Him. Jeremiah 29:13. The bible says that when your eye is single your whole body will be full of light.
“The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light;” Luke 11:34
Have you ever tried to talk to someone when you know they are not concentrating on what you are saying? It can be annoying for you know they are not really interested. It’s like when you are sharing with someone on the phone and you can hear them clicking the keyboard on their computer as they talk to you. It’s a serious problem today with parents and their children, and even lovers in cafes who are on their phones instead of communicating face to face. We are not giving others our full attention and so it is with God, but you can’t fool Him.
When we are focused on Him it’s like a magnifying glass being fully focused on a subject and the light causes a fire to break out.
Reading the bible while watching television is also watering down the ability to receive from God. It’s like sitting in a service trying to listen to a sermon with a crying child in your lap, you don’t get much out of the service.
My challenge to you is to come away with the Lord and give Him your best praise and worship. The Song of Songs tells us how much He is captivated by our love for Him and even a glance from our worshipping eyes thrills His heart. Song of Songs 4:9.
You can commit to memory so many things that you see every day in His creation that bring verses to mind and then you can use them in your worship to this magnificent God. Have a look at my booklets on Practising the Presence of God it may help you on your next ‘Praise Walk.’
www.stonesoffire.online
