Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

Archives for September 2010

The Power of God

by

What if we were to suddenly cease trying to do everything in our own strength? It is common in the Western world to strive to become all we can be, to set goals and have wild aspirations. We are taught from an early age that we deserve to have the best that life has to offer, and these things can be ours if we will only work harder than everyone else. We are bombarded by advertising that encourages us to reach for the gold and shoot for the stars, and so we set out to get our fair share of all that is good in the world. Even those of us who profess to be Christians can get caught up in this whirlwind of seeking self-satisfaction. We may couch it in spiritual terminology and demonstrate it by our countless works of charity, but still we are doing these things with little use of God’s power. Humans are a remarkable creation; we have been given the mental prowess and physical capabilities to achieve great things. How often do we stop to contemplate how small our power is when compared to the Holy God of the universe? What might we accomplish for Him if we would but abandon everything and trust solely in His power?

Too often we muddy our life message by determining to follow Jesus and then attempting to do so by our own plans and means. Sure, we’ll pray for wisdom here and a blessing there, but too often these are cursory prayers that lack focus and true devotion. The way we operate should be the exact opposite. While it is somewhat antithetical to our culture, it is critical that we spend great amounts of time alone with God, crying out to Him in desperation. We must let Him know that we realize we are nothing without Him. In our own strength we can accomplish very little. We may be a great planner and an overachiever, but there is nothing we can do on our own that comes remotely close to the smallest thing we can do through His power. A life lived in reckless abandonment to Jesus Christ is a life that will shake the world with the love of Jesus.

What exactly does it mean to live a life with reckless abandon for Jesus? It means coming to the point where we recognize that our best efforts lack vitality and pale in comparison to His majestic power. It means ceasing every attempt to accomplish something on our own. Instead of working diligently and praying for His blessing, we must pray diligently and be blessed by His working. Don’t confuse what I’m saying as being an excuse to be lazy and to do no work. Following Jesus is indeed difficult work, but it’s the kind of work that leaves one feeling well satisfied at the end of the day. We simply need to become a people who pray first and act second. We often get this reversed. Instead of trying to figure out how to overcome insurmountable odds, we need to simply move forward in prayer, trusting that God in His power will remove the obstacles from our path. As long as we are following in the footsteps of Jesus, living as He lived and serving others for the sake of the Kingdom, our path will be straight before us. Nothing can stand in the wake of God.

His power is available for our consumption right now. He is waiting to live through you. A true follower of Christ not only has Jesus walking with them, but they have the Spirit of God working through them. We have spent too much of our lives relegating Jesus to the passenger seat, or worse yet, the back seat. It is high time we handed Him both the wheel and the keys. Nothing we will ever do on our own can match what He will do through us. Begin today to seek time alone with Him every day, the longer the better. Cry out in desperation to Him, confess your knowledge of how weak and powerless you are. Ask Him to pour His Spirit into your life until you overflow with His glory and love. Walk in His power and leave all the details to Him. A life fully surrendered to Jesus is a life that will change this world.

Our Response to Poverty

by

Poverty can be of a material, physical, mental or spiritual nature. As followers of Jesus, what should be our response to poverty in all of its various forms? It is clear in Scripture that we are to care for those in need. A quick reading of the parable of “The Sheep and the Goats” (Matthew 25:31-46) reveals that we are to feed the hungry, provide water to those who don’t have access to it, give shelter to the homeless, clothe those who are in need, care for the sick and minister to those in prison. It’s a rather comprehensive picture of the poor and outcast in our society. These are the things we must do if we would be a true follower of Christ. This is the mission He left for us to pursue. Not only that, but it is the mission He modeled in His own life. Do you want to live a life that reflects the beauty of Jesus? If so, our mission to those in poverty has been clearly laid out for us.

To carry out our mission will require sacrifice on our behalf for those we find in need. Ministering to those in prison will require giving up some of our time and perhaps will force some of us to drop a sense of fear towards those who are incarcerated. Despite the reasons they are there, those in prison are some of the most vulnerable and desperate people on the planet. They need to hear of the hope offered by Jesus and to feel the nonjudgmental touch of unconditional love.

Caring for the sick requires us to not only sacrifice our time but also to possibly forfeit our own health. Mother Theresa endured many illnesses contracted while carrying for the sick in Calcutta. She was not deterred, and neither can we become so. To touch one who is sick, to visit them in their illness will do wonders for their psyche and resolve. Simply demonstrating the love of Jesus to them will often speed their recovery by that simple act alone. Love is a wonderful healer, and letting a sick person know that someone cares may be just the boost they need.

Giving food and water, clothing or shelter to those who lack these things can be as simple as sharing from your excess. Most of us who live in the West have more than enough food in our cupboards and access to a virtually unlimited supply of clean water. By simply being a people content with “just enough” for ourselves (Proverbs 30:8-9), we would discover a tremendous abundance that we could give to someone who did not have enough. We could also give our money to organizations that are involved in getting food to famine stricken nations or drilling wells in places that have no access to clean water (two excellent ministries I highly recommend that are doing work in this area are Persecution Project and Living Water International). Perhaps you may even consider sacrificing further and actually going to the poor of the world, whether that means a third world country far away, or an inner city just around the corner. Giving your life in service to those in need is giving your life to live out the Gospel. This is a life, if done with the proper attitude and spirit, which certainly looks like Jesus.

We are called to serve those in poverty. Throughout much of the New Testament we find passages that admonish us to care for those who are in need and to share what we have with one another, so that no one lacks anything. Jesus gave all that He had, ultimately His own life, in order to give a better life to all those around Him. He did this out of love and obedience to God. He sacrificed freely and completely. Our response must be the same, so that we too can live lives that are a fragrant sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:2). Poverty surrounds every one of us. To those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus, the challenge is clear. How will we respond?

The Best of Intentions

by

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the best of intentions accomplishes absolutely nothing. Wishing someone well does precious little to aid them in any way. Service of any kind happens only when we put action behind our thoughts. Wishing there was no poverty in the world is noble, but ultimately useless. Selling your unnecessary possessions and giving that money to alleviate hunger will be a step towards eliminating poverty in the world. Teaching a person less fortunate than you a skill they can use to get ahead in life will not only boost their self-esteem, but this too will be another step towards the elimination of poverty. When we take action, our best intentions and wishes begin to form into reality. We will have begun to live a life that looks like Christ.

Jesus never simply wished someone well or only had a good thought for an individual in need. He took action; He reached into their need and healed their heart. Christ didn’t die with a bunch of unfulfilled plans left undone. He took action every step along the way of His life to make certain that He accomplished everything He came to do. We have become really good at making plans and creating goals. Often, however, we leave the actual doing to someone else. This is not the life that Jesus modeled for us. Jesus made a plan and then carried it through. He saw a need and immediately filled it. We have the best of intentions, but Jesus focused on the best implementations.

The difference between how we tend to see problems and How Jesus saw them, is that He actually seized the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life. We need to move from being a people of planning to become a people of action. We tend to get stuck within the process of making sure we get it right. We plan endlessly or simply put off our service until we have enough time, enough money or enough help. Jesus did not wait, He never hesitated. He was 100% certain of His mission, and every action He took moved Him closer to fulfillment of that mission. He lived with an incredible sense of urgency. He realized every moment mattered for God, and He acted out His every intention.

While we sit and plot our next activity or ministry, children continue to die of disease and malnutrition. AIDS runs rampant, devastating entire countries. Thousands are tortured each day for their religious beliefs, and millions more die without the hope of Jesus Christ. Planning ways to help is not good enough. If we would live like Jesus, we must learn to throw caution to the wind and simply, but immediately, act. It is when we give it all away that we will suddenly discover all that we’ve ever been missing. Once we stop intending and start doing we will see changes in our world that we would have never dreamed possible.

Our God is a God of action. He is not anti-planning, but He is against inaction. He calls us to do good works in His name, deeds that will bring about His Kingdom on earth. When was the last time you moved out of the planning mode and actually did something audacious for God? When was the last time you took action without thinking, simply because it was the right thing to do? God will not bless our best intentions, but He will bless our action regardless of how well we execute it. Let’s stop giving lip service to God about our commitment to Him; instead, let’s turn the best of our intentions into tangible activities of service to others.

What’s Your Motivation?

by

Our world is filled with self-help books, books on how to get rich, how to lose weight, and how to have everything you “deserve”. Getting rich is a good thing as long as we do it with the motivation of giving it all away in the service of Jesus. Losing weight is a worthwhile goal, so long as we recognize we can better serve Christ if we are healthy. Trying to better your self is noble, provided you do so with the aim of becoming more like Jesus and drawing others to Him. It’s all a question of our motivation. Why do we do the things that we do? Are we seeking power and prestige or servitude and humility? Is our hope to bring recognition and honor to our self or to Jesus Christ?

Motivation is a tricky thing, and we can easily deceive ourselves. It’s easy to begin with one motivation only to see it slowly morph over time into something entirely different. We see this in politics all the time: an idealistic young person runs for office in hopes of making positive changes in their world. After some time in office they seem to forget why they are there and instead begin to seek more and more personal power. What changed? They are still doing the same job, but they are doing it with an entirely different motivation from when they began. What we do is often not nearly as important as why we do it.

The same rule applies to following Jesus. It’s really not so much what we do; it’s why we are doing it. It’s not about who we become in the eyes of the world, but who we become in Christ. God sees our heart and our motivation. He knows exactly who we are. We must constantly be asking ourselves, “Why am I doing the things I am doing?” It is important that we purposefully do all that we do for His honor and to lead others to know Him. Whatever else we achieve in life is meaningless when compared to leading one lost soul to Christ.

Motivation is what gets us out of bed in the morning (or not). When we are living a life fully focused on Jesus, getting up is easy. We have a clear purpose and mission. It’s really hard to be lazy or depressed when you know each day brings the opportunity to serve God. Who are we to have been given such a high privilege? I shake my head when I hear people say that we “deserve a nice house” or that we “deserve to be happy”. That’s not at all Biblical. What we deserve is to go to hell and spend eternity separated from Christ. That is the reality, according to Scripture, of what we deserve. From that knowledge it becomes even more breath taking to realize that, as followers of Jesus, we not only get to spend eternity with Him, but right now we have the opportunity to collaborate with Him in this exercise we call life.

Having the opportunity to serve my Lord is more than enough motivation for me. I want to live as He lived and die like He died, having finished the race with the knowledge that I did all I could for the Kingdom of God. Love God, love people; this is the perfect motivation.

What motivates you each day? Are you driven by a healthy fear and reverence for all that Christ has done for you? Do you realize that you have been delivered from that which you truly deserved and instead are being given what no one apart from Jesus Himself actually deserved? Don’t chase after “things” that will fade away in this life, money and fame and prestige. These may motivate for awhile but they will always leave you hungry for more. Only the pure motivation of serving Jesus brings lasting joy and peace. Get motivated for His sake and begin to help building His kingdom here on earth.

Desperation

by

Recently I posed the question, “How desperate are you”? I feel there was more that needed to be said on this topic, so I hope you will indulge me as we dig a little deeper into this concept. Webster’s defines desperation as a “loss of hope and surrender to despair”, with despair being characterized as “the loss of all hope or confidence”. Applying the concept of desperation to our spiritual life then means we have come to the place where we have no hope or confidence in ourselves; we are without recourse on our own, and in dire need of rescue.

Since we have no hope in and of ourselves, we must find it elsewhere. Jesus offers the greatest hope of all. He promises rest, peace and eternal life spent in communion with Him. I don’t know about you, but I could use just a small portion of that in my life right now! If we would follow Him, this is our destiny. Though we are faced with great trials and heartaches, remaining focused on Jesus gives us the hope that our troubles will someday be absolved by His healing. Faith in God allows us to see a future that is infinitely better than our present. He gives us something for which to strive. The Holiness of Jesus Christ is the light at the end of our tunnel. We must come to realize that there is no hope without Jesus, but with Him we have the ultimate promise of a satisfied and glorious life.

Just as we have no hope outside of Jesus, neither do we have any confidence except in Him. Only the Son of God is reliable without exception; only He will be there for us without fail. We rise up against trials only to be knocked down, but He has conquered them all. Even death proved to be no match for Christ. There is nothing He does not have the power to defeat. Your temptations, illnesses and addictions pose no challenge to His love and power. We are helpless to defeat sin on our own and we are unable to achieve anything of eternal worth unless He is working through us. Despite our bluster and pretense, our substance is ridiculously small. We are weak and fragile beings, often just one obstacle away from throwing in the towel. The only one who will never let is down is Jesus Christ. He is the calm in any storm and the power in every adversity. If we rely on ourselves, we will die in our failure; but if we put our faith in Jesus, we can know that He will be our strength and our life.

To be desperate for Jesus is to realize that He is our only hope and that we can do nothing without Him. Left to our own devices, we will fail and we will die, unfulfilled and lost. If we are still holding on to the belief that we are able to do anything on our own, we believe the lie of Satan. In fact the only thing we can do in our own strength is to turn away from God. In this we see the ultimate breakdown, the failure to recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our best efforts result in total inadequacy. All we can do apart from Jesus is fail. With Him, all we can do is live and in a manner that is beyond our wildest dreams and expectations.

Search your heart. Are you truly desperate for Him? Have you come to the point where you have no hope for your life and no confidence in anything you do? This is a sacred place, because it is in the midst of this condition that we finally become ready to surrender fully to the Lordship and authority of Jesus. It is now that we may experience the totality of His love. He is desperate to share Himself with us, and we are in desperate need to receive Him. Put away your pride, your ego and your sense of self sufficiency. Be desperate, for in this there is life.