Even If i Walk Alone

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

commitment

Absolute Surrender

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Surrender is a word which causes mixed emotions for me. My independent and ferocious side wants to scream out, “Never! I won’t quit, won’t stop, won’t ever give in.” Surrender implies I’ve failed in some way. I didn’t complete the task or achieve the mission. I’m not one who likes to be beaten. On the flip side, surrender is the most beautiful word I know and is the aspiration of my life.

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I know I cannot win until I surrender. The mission will fail unless and until I surrender. While my prideful self resists surrender, my love for Christ demands it of me. So, in a paradoxical sense, I must refuse to surrender to ever stop surrendering to Jesus!

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Created for More

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There is no doubt we were created for more. We were created to be more, love more, give more, serve more, and look more like Jesus. None of us are fulfilling our God-given potential. I know this because I don’t think any of us can fathom all God has in mind for us. He sees us as He created us to be. We see ourselves in light of our experiences, confidence, faith, and distorted perception of our skills and abilities. Because we are polluted by sin, we are blinded to the glorious reality designed for us by our Creator.

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We are all experiencing God’s potential for our lives in varying degrees. Some are further along than others. Some haven’t even gotten started. But all of us have an enormous potential placed inside of us by the perfect and divine creator Jesus. He created us in the image of Himself. There are no limits when we surrender fully to Him.

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Demonstrating Our Faith

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Kyle Idleman has written another challenging book. This one is entitled, “Don’t Give Up”. Early on, Pastor Idleman makes the statement, “Faith doesn’t tend to be sedentary. It’s always sending us somewhere.” He follows this up by encouraging us to ask ourselves two questions: 1) “Am I following God in a way that requires faith?” 2) “Do I do anything at all in my life that requires courage and confidence?”

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If you aren’t squirming a bit as you contemplate those questions, you are a better person than I. Since we are fellow sojourners in our quest to serve God with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul, I’m going to go ahead and assume those questions made you as uncomfortable as they did me.

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Finish the Race

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I think we all want to live a victorious life. No one sets out to be a loser. We all want to be winners. Since we’re going to be running the race of life every day, we may as well win. Otherwise, it seems like a tremendously futile endeavor. The apostle Paul said we all run the race to win, to earn the crown of victory (1 Corinthians 9:24).

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As long as we are running for Christ, there is nothing wrong with striving to win. We want our lives to be pleasing to Him. We want to live in such a way that will bring Him honor and glory, and in the process to further His mission and bring His Kingdom to earth as it is in Heaven.

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Not My Will, But Yours

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The prayer of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane is powerful for us today. It’s easy to miss the simple power contained within this prayer because we are accustomed to reading it as part of the crucifixion story. Jesus prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup away from Me—nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42). It is the second half of the prayer on which I’d like to focus: “not my will, but yours be done.”

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A couple of years earlier, Jesus had taught His disciples to pray in a similar manner, when He prayed, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10). Jesus prayed and instructed us to pray for God’s will to be done, regardless of what we face or what is swirling around us.

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