How to Walk in Faith

In Genesis 5, tucked inside a genealogy spanning from Adam to Noah, we meet a man whose life story stands out. Not because of its length, but because of its depth. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, lived only 365 years. That was a third of the lifespan of most in his generation. But his impact has stretched across millennia. The Bible says simply and profoundly: “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24, KJV).

To understand who Enoch was and what we can learn from his life, we need to step back and look at the larger context of Genesis 5. This chapter outlines the generations from Adam to Noah, covering a 1,656-year span of human history. It leads up to Noah's life and notes that he was about 500 years old when his three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth) were born. Within this timeline, each descendant is listed along with how long they lived, when they had children, and when they died.

But Enoch's record is different. Not only is his lifespan much shorter, but there is something unique about how his life is described, and how it ended.

The Power of a Predecessor’s Faith
Enoch appears in the seventh generation from Adam. What's fascinating is that when you lay out the lifespans described in Genesis 5, you notice something easy to miss. Enoch and Adam were alive on the earth at the same time. Their lives overlapped.

While the text doesn’t explicitly say they interacted, it's quite possible that they did. Imagine Enoch sitting with his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, asking him, “Tell me, Adam, what was it like?” And Adam, with a far-off look in his eye, might have said, “We used to walk with Him in the cool of the day. He would stop to talk about a plant He created, or describe the purpose behind each animal. Nothing compared to His presence.”

Though we can’t know for certain, this possibility gives us a window into how faith can ripple across generations. Enoch may have been influenced by Adam’s stories and stirred to recover what had been lost. To walk with God again.

That phrase, “walked with God,” isn’t poetic filler. The Hebrew word translated “walked” means to use one’s feet to advance, to move forward step by step. It’s a simple image, but a powerful one. Enoch’s walk wasn’t a series of spiritual encounters or religious performances. It was a daily, forward-moving relationship.

He didn’t just stop in to visit God. He didn’t wave at Him from a distance. He walked with Him. Consistently, intentionally, personally.

When Responsibility Deepens the Walk
Genesis 5:22 adds an important detail: “And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters” (KJV). This suggests that something intensified in Enoch’s faith after he became a father.

Many of us can relate to this. That moment when you bring a child home, the weight of responsibility can be overwhelming. For Enoch, it didn’t push him away from God. It pushed him deeper into relationship with God.

This principle still holds true. The weight of life’s moments will either deepen your faith or cause it to disappear. It depends on how you choose to respond. Enoch responded by walking closer.

Responsibility, when embraced with faith, often drives us to be more intentional. Enoch didn’t just seek God for himself anymore. He sought God for the generations after him.

A Walk That Started Before He Was Born
There is another layer to Enoch’s story that still speaks today. Sometimes, faith doesn’t begin with us. Sometimes, we’re walking paths cleared by others.

The speaker shared a story about his own grandfather. A man he never met. He was the youngest of eight children, and by the time he was born, his grandfather had already been gone for 20 years.

But this grandfather, a schoolteacher, a man of God, and the chairman of deacons at First Baptist Church of Elliott, Arkansas, left a legacy. He helped start a bus ministry that brought in 300 to 400 people and led many to salvation. That faithfulness, decades before, still bore fruit in the speaker’s own life.

That’s the beauty of multi-generational faith. Sometimes, we’re standing where we are today because someone else walked with God before us.

Enoch’s journey may have begun in the footsteps of Adam. And it was passed on to Methuselah, who passed it on until it reached Noah, who would walk with God and carry humanity through the flood.

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:8-9, KJV).

The Simplicity and Strength of Walking With God
It’s easy to complicate faith. But Enoch reminds us that spiritual strength often looks like simple, steady obedience.

Walking with God is not about status, age, or experience. It’s about moving forward, step by step, day by day, with Him. It’s about letting life’s weight press us into God, not away from Him. It’s about recognizing the legacy we’ve inherited and the legacy we’re building.

Enoch’s life was shorter than most, but it was marked by something far greater than time. It was marked by intimacy with God.

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5, KJV).

May we learn from Enoch. May we walk as he walked. And may our lives, like his, echo faithfulness across generations.



This blog is based on the message shared by Senior Pastor Dr. Roger Patterson at our CityRise West U Baptist campus on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. Check out the full message below!