Even If i Walk Alone

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

dreams

Follow Your Heart?

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It disturbs me that an increasing number of messages from pastors these days sound more like teachings from the personal development crowd than they do from the Word of God. We don’t go to church to learn how to be better people here on earth; we go to learn more about God and how to live and love like Him.

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Living and loving like Jesus will improve your life spiritually and mentally, but the personal development philosophies are more focused on the physical and financial side of things. The Word of God will prepare you for eternity, but pop psychology will only help you for the moment in time you will spend in this life. Self-help gurus will teach you to follow your heart. The Bible will teach you to follow Jesus.

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Let Go of the Past

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In his book, “The Last Arrow”, Erwin McManus expounds on Luke 9:57-62 with the observation, “Jesus clearly imparted to all of His disciples: You cannot follow me into the future if you are holding on to your past.” I wonder how many of us are hamstrung in seeking to do new things within God’s Kingdom because we are refusing to let go of the past?

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We’ve been holding onto some things so long we don’t even realize we’re doing it. They have simply become an extension of who we are. If we want to move into a future containing all God has for us, we’ve got to stop dragging the past along with us. The past simply has no place in the future. It’s too bulky and gets in the way.

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Fantasies and Daydreams

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In his book, “All Things New”, author John Eldredge writes, “Where we take our fantasies is a helpful way to know what we are doing with our Kingdom heart”. Which begs the question, “What is it about which you are fantasizing?” Said another way, when you daydream, about what are you dreaming? We go in the direction of the things about which we think. Indeed, we grow in the direction of the things about which we think.

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Our fantasies and daydreams reveal the deepest desires of our heart. Far from fancy or whimsy, and regardless of their implausibility, fantasies and daydreams reveal what we would be if we were God. What are your fantasies and daydreams revealing about you? Are they revealing a God-focused, others-centered disciple? Or are they revealing a prideful and self-centered individual?

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Daydreaming

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For followers of Jesus, daydreaming can be both a blessing and a curse. On the blessing side, what we daydream about offers significant insight into what God created you to do for His Kingdom. If you aren’t certain where your passions lie, pay attention to the things about which you daydream. We tend to dream about those things which captivate and fascinate us. One of the great joys in life is figuring out the intersection between your passions and God’s mission.

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On the flip side, daydreaming can be an insidious thief of your time and energy. We can waste hours daydreaming and not accomplishing anything for God’s glory. As disciples, we know it is our duty to be good stewards of our time, so we must be careful our daydreaming does not inhibit our Kingdom building.

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Forget Your Plans

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In her book, “Passport through Darkness”, Kimberly L. Smith writes, “who of us wants to give up our notion of what we think our lives should look like so that we are available for Him to use?” Read that again and let it sink in. I think it hits at what lies at the root of our reluctance to fully surrender our lives to Jesus. We all have dreams and ambitions, a vision for what we want our lives to look like. Quite honestly, serving Jesus tends to get in the way of the pursuit of those dreams. Following Christ necessitates that we let go of all of our ambitions and plans; all of them, no exceptions.  That’s a heavy cost that most are not willing to pay.

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