Micah 6:6-8 – With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, 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. (NIV)

Walking five dogs successfully requires a system. Each of the dogs therefore has a place within the fan shape that is most effective when walking a number of creatures. If one or more of the dogs begin crossing over or under the other leashes, instead of keeping their place, confusion and tangles result which impede or cancel our progress.

Keeping pace is also of the utmost importance for a safe and happy excursion. Stopping to nose the ground, slowing down or lunging can cause some disastrous results for everyone. When each keeps its place and pace, however, our walks are times of refreshment, joy and pleasant communion.

Keeping place and pace spiritually is also of key importance if we desire our Christian walk to be likewise. Within our world, God calls us to act justly and to love mercy but amid the hustle and bustle of what we term reality, it is often easy to become side-tracked, to get off on a tangent and lose our place or focus. Before we know it we have all but forgotten God's original purpose for us, His children.

Other times we forget to keep pace as we walk with Him. We seek to lunge ahead of His timing, or lag behind due to lack of faith or will-full pride which often results in undue frustration, fatigue, even pain as we may experience the humiliation of falling to failure.

When the dogs and I set out on our walk, the only way that place and pace can be maintained is through trust and obedience to my commands, which calls for submission upon their part to my leadership. Due to the fact that my pack knows me and my love for them, trust and obedience is the norm as we go our way.

Likewise the only way we can successfully keep place and pace amidst our Christian pilgrimage is through humility, loving submission to our wonderful and wise, all-knowing, heavenly Father whose place (focus) and pace is always geared for our well-being, refreshment, joy and pleasant communion.

Prayer: Dearest Lord, move our hearts this day to focus upon Your perfect and all-encompassing love for us, Your children, that our Christian walk might indeed refresh, bless us with joy, and draw us more deeply into pleasant communion with You. In Jesus' wonderful name we ask. Amen.

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About the author:

Lynne Phipps <lynnephippsatlin@gmail.com>
Tawatinaw, Alberta, Canada
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