Even If i Walk Alone

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

Our Response to Poverty

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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

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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?

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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

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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.

How Desperate Are You?

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It’s easy to get caught up in everything that we do throughout our day. The demands of our friends, families and jobs leave little room for us to breathe. Days blur into weeks, weeks into months and before we know it the years are passing us by. What do we have to show for our time so far? Are we accomplishing all we dreamt and becoming the person we determined ourselves to be? How are we measuring our days to determine what, if any, legacy we are leaving behind?

For me, living in America, it is easy to lose myself in my job and my career. My culture pushes me to work long hours and achieve ever greater levels of financial success. If only we dress and act the part, sooner or later we will achieve the success that society tells us we deserve. Day after day we strive to achieve greatness in our pursuit of the American dream. We are busier now than at any point in history. Our lives are spent connected to technology and awash in cell phones, emails and caffeine. At the edges, we try and fit in the other aspects of our life, yet never seem to have time for it all. On the outside of everything stands Jesus, our Lord and our King. This is the same Jesus to whom we pledged our entire lives. We said we’d follow Him anywhere, but now there simply isn’t time.

If you truly love Him, then you remember moments in your life when you were thirsty to drink of His Spirit. There were times when you simply couldn’t get enough. Your soul ached as you begged for more and more of Jesus, His holiness, and His grace. How long has it been since you felt this way? In our dogged self-reliance, when was the last time we were truly desperate for Him? When was the last time you were so desperate that you were completely undone, that you realized you could not do a single thing apart from His power? When was the last time you were undone, desperate beyond words and on your knees before the God of the universe? When was the last time you slowed down long enough to realize that this world is not about you, but rather about what you can do for Jesus? How long has it been since you put aside your own agenda to be the help for someone in need? I have found it far too easy to see people as distractions and annoyances rather than as deeply valued, wholly loved, co-citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. If we are not desperate for Him, than we are finished; we have no hope outside of Jesus Christ. Only He can save us from the wickedness of our world and of ourselves.

Nothing matters apart from Jesus; not your family, not your friends and not your job. All else, every single thing in the universe, pales in comparison to Jesus Christ. Anything but Him is useless. We cannot live without Him; we cannot show the world their need for Jesus, until we get the need in our own heart settled. We must reject everything that is not Him. He demands all that we have, so we owe every second of our lives to Him. We must recognize that we are nothing, He is everything and we need Him. He is all that we have, and He is more than enough.

This world will never change until we change ourselves. As long as we insist on leading a life that consists of what society tells us we should do, we will never be able to fully participate in the Kingdom of God here on earth. God doesn’t want our lip service; you can’t fool Him. God wants everything. We must come to the point in our lives where we no longer hold to anything but Jesus. We must drink fully of His Spirit, all the while realizing that we could never drink enough. It’s time to get serious about our faith and put away the things of this world. We are a peculiar people, so why try to be normal? Surrender everything to Him; let it all go. Empty yourself of every thought except for Jesus. Stop striving for success in this world and work for the Kingdom to come. Pray and realize how much you need God; cry out to Him.

Are you living for the praise of man or the praise of God? Everything you so desperately seek on this earth may be yours temporarily, but in the end it will all be taken from you. Only one thing matters now and in the future: Jesus. Do you thirst for Him? Will you forsake everything for Him? How much do you long to be filled with the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ? How desperate are you?