0
0
You sing the line on Sunday. By Tuesday you are standing at the sink, and you could not tell anyone what walking with Jesus is supposed to look like at 7:40 in the morning with a lunch to pack.
Most of us picture it the same way. Jesus is somewhere up ahead, and our job is to keep up. So when the week gets loud, we figure we have fallen behind. But the clearest picture of walking with Jesus in the Gospels runs the other direction. A frightened father asked for help, and Jesus turned and walked toward the man’s house. Once you see which way the walk goes, a lot of the pressure comes off.
Five Words That Turn the Picture Around
The story is in Mark chapter 5. A man named Jairus, one of the leaders of the local synagogue, pushes through a crowd and falls at Jesus’ feet. His little girl is dying. He asks Jesus to come.
Mark’s answer is five words long:
“And Jesus went with him” (Mark 5:24, KJV)
Read that slowly. It does not say Jairus went with Jesus. It says Jesus went with Jairus. Down the man’s own street, toward his own front door, toward the one room in his life he was most afraid to walk back into.
That is where walking with Jesus begins. You do not start by catching up to Him. You start by asking Him to come, and then you find He is already headed your way. Your kitchen, your commute, your hard conversation at three o’clock. That is the road.
What Walking With Jesus Looked Like on That Road
Three things happen on the way to Jairus’s house. Each one says something true about an ordinary day with Jesus.
1. He walks slower than your worry does
On the way, Jesus stops. A woman who had been sick for twelve years touches His clothes in the crowd, and He will not move on until He has found her and spoken to her. (Her story is worth its own read: why Jesus stopped for the woman with the issue of blood.)
Think about Jairus standing there. Every second matters to him, and Jesus is having a conversation with someone else. Mark does not tell us what Jairus felt. But anyone who has prayed about something urgent and then waited knows that spot.
Walking with Jesus means walking at His pace, and His pace has room in it for people. That can feel like delay. It is also the reason He had time for you.
2. He speaks first when the bad news comes
While Jesus is still talking, messengers arrive from the house with the worst sentence a parent can hear. Look at what Mark writes next:
“As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.” (Mark 5:36, KJV)
“As soon as.” Before Jairus can answer. Before the fear has time to settle in. Jesus gets His words in ahead of the panic.
This is a big part of why a daily walk matters. If you have spent a few quiet minutes with His words in the morning, they are already in the room when the hard phone call comes at two. You are not reaching for something new. You are remembering something you heard today.
3. He keeps walking
The messengers say, “why troublest thou the Master any further?” In other words: it’s over, let Him go. Jesus does not go. He finishes the walk. He goes into the house, takes the girl by the hand, and Mark says she “arose, and walked.”
Here is an honest word, because you deserve one. Not every hard walk ends the way this one did. People who love Jesus still sit in waiting rooms and still stand at gravesides. What this story shows about every walk with Jesus is the part before the ending: He went with the man, and He did not turn back when the news got worse.
The Detail Most of Us Read Past
After his first plea, Jairus never speaks again in Mark’s telling. Not one recorded word on the road. Not when Jesus stops. Not when the messengers come. Not in the house.
He just stays beside Jesus and keeps walking.
If you have worried that you are doing this wrong because you do not know what to say, or your prayers feel thin, look at Jairus. His whole part in the walk was one honest request and then staying close. Paul later put it in a single line: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” (Colossians 2:6, KJV). The way you started is the way you keep going. You asked. He came. Stay near.
What This Changes About Tomorrow Morning
So what does walking with Jesus look like at 7:40 with a lunch to pack? Smaller than you think.
- Ask Him into the actual day. Name the real thing, the way Jairus did. The meeting. The kid who won’t talk to you. The bill.
- Let Him speak first. Read a short piece of His life before you read your phone, so His words arrive before the day’s news does.
- Stay beside Him when it’s slow. A delay is not Jesus leaving. On that road, the delay was Jesus being exactly who He is.
Do that for a week and mornings start to feel different. Less like a test you are behind on. More like company. We wrote more about that daily rhythm in Walking With Jesus Daily, and if you like to dig into one passage, there is a Walking With Jesus Bible study on the road to Emmaus.
A Simple Way to Take the Next Step
The hard part for most people is the “let Him speak first” piece. You open the Bible, you are not sure where to start, and the morning is gone.
That is what 30 Days Walking with Jesus is for. It walks through the life of Jesus one day at a time, as a beginner-friendly reading plan through the Gospels. Each day takes under 10 minutes. You get 30 short devotional videos (each under 60 seconds), 30 full-chapter audio readings, a complete PDF study guide with journal prompts, and 5 quick-reference scripture guides.
It is free. No payment, no card, no upsell, and it is yours to keep on any device. We made it that way because the words of Jesus should not sit behind a paywall.
Jairus asked, and Jesus went with him. You can ask today, and start Day 1 with your coffee tomorrow.
Questions People Are Asking
Q: What does walking with Jesus mean?
A: Walking with Jesus means living your ordinary days in His company: asking Him into what is really going on, listening to His words, and staying close when things are slow or hard. In Mark 5:24, when a father named Jairus asked for help, the Bible says “And Jesus went with him.” The walk began with Jesus coming toward the man’s own life, not with the man trying to keep up.
Q: How do I start walking with Jesus as a beginner?
A: Start small and start today. Tell Jesus one real thing you need help with, then read a short part of His life in one of the Gospels, such as Mark, before you pick up your phone. A few quiet minutes each morning is enough to begin. If you want a guide, 30 Days Walking with Jesus is a free, beginner-friendly plan through the Gospels that takes under 10 minutes a day.
Q: Is “walking with Jesus” a phrase in the Bible?
A: The Bible often uses walking as a picture of daily life with God. Colossians 2:6 in the King James Version says, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” The Gospels also show people literally walking beside Jesus, such as Jairus in Mark 5, where Jesus went with him to his house.
Q: What if I am walking with Jesus and things are getting worse?
A: That happened to Jairus. While Jesus was on the way to his house, Jesus stopped to help someone else, and then bad news arrived. Mark 5:36 says that as soon as Jesus heard it, He told Jairus, “Be not afraid, only believe,” and He kept walking with him. The Bible does not promise that every hard thing ends the way we hope, but this story shows that a delay does not mean Jesus has left.
Q: How much time does walking with Jesus take each day?
A: There is no set amount. Many people begin with a few unhurried minutes in the morning: a short reading from the Gospels and one honest prayer. What matters more than the length is coming back the next day. The free 30 Days Walking with Jesus plan is built around under 10 minutes a day for that reason.
