Even If i Walk Alone

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

Discipline

Stay Alert

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Complacency is one of the biggest threats to growing deeper in our relationship with Christ. Taking our eyes off Jesus for only a moment can reap disastrous and long-lasting results. Too often we treat our faith with a casualness that belies its eternal significance. Modern evangelicalism has so watered down the gospel to cater to our individual whims and desires that we think of Christianity as a lifestyle rather than the spiritual war it is.

Man determined to stay alert and on mission by setting his focus on discipleship and ordering his priorities around prayer and discipline

Ask any soldier what happens if you get complacent in battle and they will assure you that you will wind up dead. If you want to live a life that honors Jesus, you must stay alert. This isn’t a game. It’s an ongoing battle for the destiny of your soul.

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Walking in God’s Will, Part 4 – God’s Will Is Not a Secret

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This is part four of our study of what it means to live life walking in God’s will. You can catch up or review by reading parts one, two, and three. If you are stumbling upon this for the first time, our premise is that God’s will is not a secret and that it is the same for each individual.

Contemplative young man pondering walking in God's will by ordering his priorities with discipline in obedience and discipleship for the glorification of God

The challenge lies in discerning His will in our very specific and disparate circumstances and decisions. The point of this series is to provide some questions we can ask to help us eliminate the noise around our choices, and boil them down to the simple and plain teaching of scripture. Let’s look at the final two questions we can ask.

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Deny Yourself

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Jesus said if anyone wants to follow Him, they must first deny themselves (Luke 9:23). What does it mean to deny yourself? It means you must deny your ego. You have been bought for a price, and your life no longer belongs to you (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). You are a slave of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:22). How could you, a slave, think more highly of yourself than anyone else (Philippians 2:3-5)?

Young man contemplating what it means to deny yourself as he seeks the discipline to surrender his priorities and live with a commitment to discipleship without fear

You don’t have the right to make your own decisions, as every choice must now align with God’s will and His Word. As slaves of Christ, we are the lowest of the low, deserving of nothing, and any good that comes our way is only by the incredible grace of our Lord and King (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are nothing, but that’s okay, because He is everything!

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Bad Fruit

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The Bible uses the analogy of good and bad fruit to distinguish between what believers and nonbelievers will produce in their lives (Matthew 7:17-20). Genuine followers of Christ will produce good fruit (John 15:8). Jesus says if we abide in Him, we will produce fruit that is growing and desirable (John 15:4-5), as we cannot produce any other kind.

a crowd with raised hands at an event espousing a false gospel and generating bad fruit showing a lack of discipline and discernment for those in attendance which belies their discipleship

But for those not in Him, Jesus likens them to bad trees that can only produce bad fruit (Matthew 7:18). A bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit every now and again; it produces bad fruit every time. Sure, it might look appealing on the outside, but inside it is rotten and sour. If we consume enough of it, what do you imagine will become of our spiritual health?

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Guard Your Mind

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In an age of endless distractions, it’s never been more vital to guard your mind. What you allow into your mind affects how you feel, act, and live. I am convinced there are no neutral thoughts. At their core, every thought will either glorify God or ourselves. Over 2,000 years ago, Paul exhorted the Church to take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Woman scrolling through her phone emphasizing the need to guard your mind, exert discipline to to show your commitment to the holiness of God by minding our thoughts, keeping our focus on God and avoiding social media.

Infiltrating our minds is the primary way Satan wages war against us (Ephesians 6:11-12). The goal of the devil is to implant thoughts in our heads to make us doubt what God has said (Genesis 3:1), question who we are in Christ (Matthew 4:3-4), and erode our faith in Jesus (Luke 22:31-32). Every lie we’ve ever believed is another attack from the devil and his demons (John 8:44).

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