Even If i Walk Alone

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

Discipleship

Psalm 119

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When I was younger and reading through the Bible, I used to dread when I came to Psalm 119. It’s the longest chapter in the Bible, and I still remember groaning when it came up for that days reading. I’ve always had a checklist personality, so when something takes a bit longer to cross off my list, I quickly grow impatient. As I’ve grown to love God and His Word more, I have come to appreciate Psalm 119 to the point it is now one of my favorite chapters, and I get excited when I turn to it.

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There is so much packed into this single chapter. Almost every verse holds a complete and self-contained nugget of praise, worship, wisdom, or instruction. I think you could read Psalm 119 every day for the rest of your life and never plumb its depths.

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Well Done

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I want to live a “well done” life. Jesus taught if we spent our lives using the talents and mission He gave to us for Him, when we face Him in Heaven He will say, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). It is to this we should aspire. It is for those words we should spend our lives. I don’t want to live my life for Jesus in a casual or half-hearted way.

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Along with the teaching of having our lives found to be good and faithful, Jesus also gave the warning many would come to Him and He wouldn’t recognize them (Matthew 7:22-23). Despite their protests and proclamations of what they had done on His behalf, He will turn them away. They are those who did not hold fast to Christ. They wavered in their devotion.

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What Has Your Attention?

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It is not uncommon for church services in Haiti to last 4-6 hours. Contrast this with the typical Western church service which is typically tightly scripted to last for an hour or an hour and 15 minutes. Anything beyond this time and people begin to bristle. We have other things to do after all. When Pastor Kyle Idleman visited Haiti, he inquired of a local pastor as to how he was able to keep the attention of his congregation for so long.

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The pastor replied simply the people in Haiti had nothing else to do. While he said this with laughter, I believe he hit on an incredibly simple, but important, truth. Believers in Haiti spend extended time worshipping God because they have nothing else in their lives competing for the attention they give to God.

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The Danger of Complaining

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Complaining can kill our spirits. No one likes to hear someone else complain, but we love to do it ourselves. At the heart of complaining is a victim mentality. We feel an injustice has been done to us, someone else has been given what we deserve, we didn’t get a fair shot, or perhaps we weren’t born into the right family or country or endowed with the perfect looks or talents.

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Some seem to have elevated complaining about co-workers, friends, or family to an art form. For others, it seems to be more a sport, as each successive complaint tops the previous one. Despite our fascination with complaining, nothing good will ever come from it.

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Pruning

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It’s easy to fall into the trap of adding more and more into our lives. These can be good things like spiritual disciplines or they can be dangerous things inflicted upon us by societal pressures. Either way, we are a people who seem to crave cramming more and more into our lives each day. When we look at the life of Jesus, the One after whom we should be modeling our own life, we don’t see Him doing this.

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Jesus lived simply, on purpose, and on mission. Perhaps the better question to ask is not what else can we add into our lives, but what is it we can remove to make Jesus our overriding priority? What is one thing we can cut out of our lives today we know is not bringing honor to our Lord?

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