Even If i Walk Alone

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

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God is Not Absent

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I love this line from author Alicia Britt Chole: “God was not absent. The challenge was self was so very present.” I cannot count the times I’ve heard people say (and okay, I’m in this group as well), “I feel like God is so far away”. God is never far away. He is always here. Wherever ‘here’ is, God is there. You cannot outrun God, so don’t bother trying to run away. Despite all our ingenuity and technological innovations, we cannot hide from God. God is never far.

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We couldn’t push Him away if we tried. His Spirit guarantees His presence with us always. The problem is not His presence, the issue is we have allowed our selfishness and pride to subtly erode our awareness of Him. To put it bluntly, we can’t get out of our own way to see God is not absent.

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Forget the Past

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We as a people spend an inordinate time thinking about the past. Some even spend their days living in the past, desperate to recapture elements from their youth. For disciples of Jesus, I have a word of admonition: forget the past. Forget everything you’ve done. Instead, I want you to focus on what you will do both at this moment, and from this moment. It’s a lesson I am still learning but desperately want to master.

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What we’ve done up until this moment matters little to our life going forward. Sure, we may have laid the groundwork for future work. There’s definite value in this. But with the knowledge every second may be our last, I submit focusing on what we will do from this moment forward is far more valuable than what we’ve done before.

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Thirty Days to Live

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How might your life look different if you knew you had only thirty days to live? Pastor Craig Groeschel says you would do three things differently. First, you would turn your “when” into “now”. Second, you would trade your intentions for actions. Last, and certainly this applies only to those who are determined to be Christ’s disciples, you would devote your whole heart to Jesus.

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I agree with Mr. Groeschel. I think we recognize all these points to be worthwhile changes in our lives. If time were winding down, we’d want to make the most of it. I have news for you: time is winding down for all of us. The question then begs to be answered, “Why wouldn’t we alter our lives to affect those changes now?”

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Right Now

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Right now is happening directly in front of you, but you probably don’t even recognize it. We’re constantly being caught unprepared to deal with the moment before us. Instead of proactively approaching each day looking for opportunities to build God’s Kingdom, we spend our time reacting to whatever may come. “Right now” occurs over and over each moment we live.

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Each of those moments is an opportunity to either build or tear down God’s Kingdom. Each of those moments is an opportunity to do the things God has told you to do, to be the person He created you to be or to forever be wasted. Right now, we get to choose which it will be.

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Are You Living For or With Jesus?

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Are you living for or with Jesus? There’s a subtle but significant difference. We can follow everything the Bible teaches and still miss the point. This is, I fear, the state in which many “Christians” find themselves today. They are focused and determined to live for Jesus, and they engage in activities they believe are dictated in the Bible. But this misses the point of living with Jesus.

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From the very beginning, God has shown He is relational. He created the Garden of Eden, indeed, the entire planet, so He could spend time with His creation. He wanted to walk with us, and for us to desire to be with Him. God’s character is unchanging, so we know He desires the same things today.

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