Even If i Walk Alone

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

Discipline

We Love Sin

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Did you ever wonder why the world hates Christianity, and by extension, Christ so much? The world doesn’t care if you’re a Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu, but a Christian? That’s unacceptable. Years ago, Matthew Henry wrote, “Christ is hated because sin is loved.” Deep down, we all know that’s true. We love sin (John 3:19). Even those of us who follow Christ and reject sin know that our affection for it never goes away (Romans 7:15-20).

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Our natural desire from birth is to sin, to follow the patterns of this world, and to resist anything that would restrict our freedom to pursue sin (Ephesians 2:1-3). I’m uncomfortable with even the thought that I might love sin, and it’s difficult to write it in such a public place. But if we didn’t love sin, we would not struggle to follow the commands of God (Romans 7:21-24).

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Until My Dying Breath

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While praying this morning, I blurted out, “Lord, let me serve and glorify You until my dying breath.” This is without a doubt the deepest desire of my heart. At the same time, I am only too aware of how often I fail to live this way. There is no higher calling in life than to love and glorify the Lord. Each of us is called to this privilege, yet most of us will live lives far short of this.

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Instead of pursuing the greatest purpose, we settle for a life that is, at best, mediocre. All the treasures and wisdom of Heaven are at our disposal (Colossians 2:3; James 1:5; 2 Peter 1:3; Philippians 4:19), but we live as if we are ignorant paupers. Life with Jesus should be so much more (John 10:10), and it will be so much more if we surrender and commit everything to Him.

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The Hardest Part

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From the research I’ve done on persecution, the hardest part is not the persecution itself, but the preparation before it begins. Standing firm in the face of pain or injustice is a small thing if one dedicates their life to living in full obedience and surrender to Christ (Philippians 1:27-28). The hard work comes before. The real difficulty is the lifetime of saying no to the pleasures and temptations of this world.

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There are countless stories of people persevering through hard times. But how many examples can you recount of people putting aside their dreams, passions, and desires so they can devote themselves to Christ? How many people are dying to themselves every day and picking up their cross (Luke 9:23)?

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Over the Line

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It seems many Christians are always looking for that magical line in the sand that separates them from sin. They are careful about not going over the line. Their commitment to Christ means they will go so far, but no further. We put much effort into seeing how close to the line we can get without crossing it. Is that reflective of God’s glory?

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Living in such a manner is nothing but a more palatable way of saying you want to look as much like the world as you can without being part of the world. It’s the opposite of being devoted to Christ. We need to focus on how separate we can be from the world (Romans 12:2) rather than trying to see how much we can look like the world without sinning.

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Too Tired

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Do you find yourself too tired to pray or read God’s Word? These days, I think most of us are too tired to do almost anything! The dizzying pace of the world and the constant onslaught of information feel like they are eating our souls. Our hurried and frenetic pace of life is, without a doubt, a tool of Satan (1 Peter 5:8). The more tired he can cause us to be, the less effective we will be for the Kingdom of God.

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With so much to do and so little time available to do it all, we must be diligent in monitoring our priorities (Matthew 6:33). It’s so easy to let the important matters slip in favor of the simpler or more pleasurable tasks (Luke 10:41-42).

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