Even If i Walk Alone

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

devotion

A Devoted Life

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There are times you encounter things in life you just can’t shake. As I exited the church I was attending recently, the pastor and a man who had identified himself as the head elder were standing at the door, ostensibly to say goodbye to people as they were leaving. As we approached, I heard them conversing somewhat passionately about… the NFL playoffs.

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That may seem innocent enough, but it has been gnawing at me ever since. I suppose it was their way of letting off steam after putting in their obligatory sixty-five minutes of church for the week. To me, it was a picture of everything wrong with Christianity in a five-second window. We are so enraptured by the world that we no longer understand what it means to live a sacred and devoted life.

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In God’s Image

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Do you ever marvel at the fact God created each of us in His very image? From the moment we are conceived, we bear the imprint of the Almighty God. Every individual has eternal worth and the potential for eternal glory. From the very beginning of God’s Word, we see God created us in His image (Genesis 1:27). It kind of makes self-esteem issues illogical, doesn’t it?

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You are created in God’s image. There are no exceptions. Whether you are male or female, regardless of the shade of your skin or the shape of your body, you are created in the image of God. As His image-bearers, our chief end then is to love and glorify God. It is the reason we exist.

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The Bondage of Little Things

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A. W. Tozer once prayed, “Save and deliver us, we pray Thee, from the bondage of little things.” What a wise prayer. It is often not the big things that keep us from God, but the thousand little things. In the same prayer, Pastor Tozer confessed we can break one, two, even ten of the little habits and comforts keeping us from surrendering to the Lordship of Christ,

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but we are powerless to break the thousand little things that twist together and bind us. When we let little things that are not of God accumulate in our life, we find they become strong chains restricting us and keeping us from complete surrender to our King.

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The Mary Test

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In a recent message looking at the birth story of Jesus, my pastor posed an interesting question: “Could you pass the Mary test?” When the angel of the Lord appeared to Mary, most scholars think she was between twelve and fifteen years of age. Even in the current era of moral decline, that’s very early for a young woman to consider being pregnant.

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Can you imagine the fear she must have felt at the prospect of being a mother when she was barely in her teens? I don’t think Mary was naïve. I believe at that moment she fully understood the weight of what was being asked of her. And yet, look at the beautiful response of Mary in Luke 1:38. She said, “I am the Lord’s slave. May it be done to me according to your word.”

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Do You Love Me More Than These?

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Many of us know the story of Jesus restoring Peter to fellowship with Him. We find the story in John 21:15-19, and much has been written and taught about this passage. The first question Jesus asked Peter was, “Do you love me more than these?” He may have been asking whether Peter loved Him more than the other disciples did, or perhaps if Peter loved Jesus more than he did his fellow disciples.

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Another option is Jesus may have been asking Peter if He loved the nourishment of God over bodily nourishment (they were eating breakfast after a night of hard fishing). While people teach the first two more often, I’d like to focus on the third option. I think “Do you love me more than these?” is a good question for us all to ask every day.

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