Even If i Walk Alone

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

humility

Others First

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Jesus demonstrated an “others first” model throughout His life. He exemplified this mindset in His death. Even today, Jesus continues His other’s first mentality by constantly advocating on our behalf with the Father. Living a life that puts others first is central to the message and character of Christ. The New Testament, and indeed the entire Bible, is saturated with stories of self-sacrifice and putting the needs of others before their own. This is how we are to live.

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But living for others is in stark contrast to modern Western thinking. For us, it’s about getting ahead, acquiring all we can, and considering ourselves a little better than those around us. In His letter to the Philippians, Paul admonishes them to do everything in humility and to always consider others more important than themselves (Philippians 2:3). It’s a far cry from how we live our lives today.

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Blind Spots

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It’s easy to point fingers at the failures of others while ignoring our shortcomings. Jesus warned against this tendency by advising us to remove the log from our eye before commenting on the speck in the eye of our brother (Matthew 7:4-5). Sometimes, as we are refining our walk with Christ, we become blind to our less developed disciplines. It is common for us all to gravitate to certain portions of Scripture that resonate the most with us.

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Too often though, we do so to the detriment of studying other parts and we develop blind spots. It’s a good practice to read some passages with which you don’t frequently engage to see what you might be missing and identify any blind spots you may have. I don’t get through many mornings reading Scripture without being convicted of something.

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No Greater Gift

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All the words ever written or spoken combined would never be adequate to describe the wonder of our Savior. Every attempt I make to describe His beauty, majesty, or glory falls woefully short. I want to describe what a difference He has made in me, but even the things He has done in my brief life are beyond words and measure.

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How do you tell the story of a God who is, quite literally, everything? He already embodies and exceeds all the words I can muster in praise. The love of Christ is so great we are at once overwhelmed and speechless. How could a God like that take notice of someone like you and me?

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The Beauty of Our God

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Today I asked God to spend the entire day in His presence. It then occurred to me how absurd this request was. We would not last a single moment in His presence. He is too holy, too overwhelming. We have become numb to the glory of God. We ask to be in His presence without realizing we, in our sinfulness, would immediately perish. The truth is, we’ve made God too small and too normal.

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While we acknowledge He is higher than everything, we have not even begun to understand His height or depth. We have seen but a glimpse. Or have we? If we had, we would be terrified, and we would be transformed. But we are not terrified of our sinfulness, nor have our lives been yet transformed to look like Jesus.

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Self-Promotion

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To me, the teachings of A. W. Tozer remain timeless. Perhaps no one else in history resonates with me as he does. Though he passed away nearly sixty years ago, his words are as relevant today as they were when he was preaching. The things he said are almost prescient. In a quote I read from him this week, he said, “I am not in the business of promoting myself; I am in the business of surrendering to the Holy Spirit.”

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Today, self-promotion is all the rage. It’s all about how many followers we have on Facebook, how many likes we have on Instagram, and whether we’re trending on Twitter. A new goal for many is to produce a video that goes viral on YouTube. Today the aim is getting the eyeballs of others to look at what we’re doing.

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