Even If i Walk Alone

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

Matthew

Fear Makes Us Forget

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Nothing is so damaging to our faith as fear. Fear has a way of undermining everything we believe. We know God is bigger than anything we might face, but when we get a difficult diagnosis from our doctor, we fear the future. We forget the serious times in our lives through which God has already seen us. When we lose a job, we fear we’ll run out of money and forget God has promised to provide for our needs (Matthew 6:31-33).

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And while we know God is the essence of love, when we become afraid we’ll never find a spouse, or when we lose a spouse and feel the absence in our lives, we fear we’ll never know love again. Fear makes us forget what we know to be true.

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Live in Love

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One of the things I learned from Brother Lawrence’s wonderful little book, “The Practice of the Presence of God”, is that any action which is devoid of love is worth little in the Kingdom of God. Love is the very essence of who God is. When you subtract love from any situation you are left with Godlessness. Where God is, there is love.

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Paul wrote in his letter to the church of Corinth no matter what else we might possess, no matter what skills or talents we have, if we don’t have love, we have nothing (I Corinthians 13). No amount of anything equals anything without love. When we love, we honor God. When we don’t, we dishonor Him. It’s a simple formula. Every follower of Christ yearns to live a life that looks like Jesus. The surest way to accomplish this is to live in love every day.

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Take Up Your Cross

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Jesus said whoever would follow Him had to deny themselves and take up their cross daily (Matthew 16:24). How many of us are doing this on a day to day basis? How many are willing to deny ourselves the comfort, security, and entertainment the world is telling us we deserve? Isn’t it true we want a version of Christianity that doesn’t involve the cross? We like the idea of being a Christian but dislike the sacrifice it requires.

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The notion of a loving God makes us feel comfortable, but His wrath makes us go another way. There is no victory without struggle, but we want our cake and to eat it too. We want all this world has to offer and a little Jesus on the side. This is not the life Jesus called us to live as His followers.

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Radical Obedience

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I’ve been mulling over the phrase “radical obedience” in my mind of late. Radical means far-reaching or thorough. That describes the type of obedience I long to have with Jesus. In fact, I would say it is the type of obedience demanded by Christ and required of all those who claim Him to be their Lord. Radical obedience is thorough. It is far-reaching. What it is not occasional or situational. Too many follow Jesus when it is convenient or expedient. When push comes to shove, their obedience wanes.

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This type of obedience, which is no obedience at all, runs rampant through our churches and results in an abundance of nominal Christians. Practicing radical obedience should be the rule, not the exception. It is sad the opposite is reality today.

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Are Your Doing What’s Important Now?

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It’s a sad truth of life we spend our time doing things that seem important now, only to discover over time we have missed out on the things that actually are. Often parents discover in the process of working long hours to provide the best things for their families, they miss out on seeing their kids grow up. People pursue careers that bring them wealth and prestige only to recognize they have no friends at retirement.

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And Christ-followers? We spend our days pursuing the American dream, or perhaps incessantly volunteering with our church, only to discover we’ve left Jesus out of the equation. It is a tragedy being played out across our nation and throughout the world. We are spending our finite time in pursuit of things that will pass away instead of focusing on our eternal Savior.

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