Even If i Walk Alone

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

Mark

A Day of Gratitude

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There is no better cure for discouragement than gratitude. We often become so consumed with our personal problems that we lose sight of all the blessings in our life. Taking the time to reflect on all that we have can be a remarkably healing and refreshing exercise. Remembering what God has done for us empowers us to face the next challenge. We who profess to be followers of Jesus have no excuse to feel hopeless and unworthy. The Creator of the entire universe and everything in it – including you – sacrificed His own life to prove how important you are to Him. He created you, and He died for you. If you can think of nothing else for which you are grateful, then just start with those two facts!

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Humble Priorities

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Every now and then, a Bible verse I’ve read a thousand times reaches out and grabs my heart in a fresh way. It’s amazing that after thousands of years, God still speaks through His written Word to those who seek and give their lives to Him. The verses that recently grabbed hold of me were Philippians 2:3-4, which read, “Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” As we examine our own lives, how close are we living to this instruction? Are we putting the needs of others before our own or diligently striving to become as comfortable, wealthy, and successful as we can be?

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Focus on God

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We are so easily distracted by the cares and pleasures of this world. Knowing he is defeated, Satan has brilliantly crafted a strategy that is making certain that he doesn’t go down alone. His entire purpose is to thwart the plans of God, delay his own inevitable demise, and keep you and me as far away from God as possible. He accomplishes this through altering our focus. As followers of Jesus, our focus should always be on two things: God Himself and serving others in His name. Everything else in life will make sense if we are keeping our focus solely on these two areas.

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Losing Concentration

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In 1978, Alexander Solzhenitsyn addressed the graduating class at Harvard saying, “Many of you have already found out what others will find out in the course of their lives that truth eludes us as soon as our concentration begins to flag, all the while leaving the illusion that we are continuing to pursue it.” I believe this holds true for the Western Church today.  Much like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, we have heaped rules and regulations onto the teachings of Christ. In the centuries that have followed His death, Christianity has often looked little like its namesake. Instead of being an all-inclusive people loving and serving others in their desperation, we have become somewhat of a closed society, a secret handshake club that does our best to keep the world at bay. We have lost our concentration on the person of Jesus and have been lulled to sleep, convinced that we are still pursuing His truth.

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Generalities

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Christians love to speak in generalities.  As long as we don’t get too specific, we can all just get along. As long as we don’t get too specific, we can live just like everyone else. Did you ever notice how Jesus only dealt in specifics? It was as if He didn’t even recognize gray as a color! Jesus never left any wiggle room; it was always black or white. As followers of Jesus, our own lives should be identified by the specific things we do, not by some general sense of what we believe. A general knowledge of anything yields little; specific action is how results are delivered.

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