Even If i Walk Alone

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

mission

Developing Zeal

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Recently I wrote a post on being zealous for God, and a reader asked how one goes about getting this zeal. It’s a great question that I thought would be worth exploring further. Zeal is not something that can be artificially manufactured. It can be fanned into a flame by many sources, but the seed of it is organic and must rise up from within you. For the purpose of our discussion, that seed is a love for Jesus and a desire to serve Him. If we truly want to serve Him above all else, we have the makings of a zealous person. The question then becomes how to fan our innermost desire into a consuming passion that engulfs us in our daily lives. There are many facets to the answer, and certainly the “how” will vary somewhat given each individual personality; I’ve put together some ideas below that have been useful in my own life.

• Get to know the character of God. Nothing develops zeal faster than learning about who God is. Reading the Bible with the intention of getting to know Him and seeing the way He has worked through history allows us to see how truly Awesome and Holy He is. Most of us tend to read the Bible to try and find out how it applies to our own lives. Ultimately, however, the Bible is not a book about us; it’s the story of God and His love for those He created. Like any relationship, if we don’t spend time learning about the other person, we will soon become disinterested. Don’t be content to learn all you know about God from a Sunday morning sermon. Dig in and discover the character of your Creator. Learn what drives Him, what angers Him and what inspires Him. Pray constantly, talking to Him as you would your closest friend. God is not afraid of your questions, your honesty, or your anger. He longs for you to learn more about Him and is a patient teacher. Ask Him to reveal His very essence to you and never stop praying and reading to learn more about who He is.

• Read inspiring material. It cannot be overstated how great an influence reading has on your mind. If we read depressing material, we will find ourselves discouraged even if we have no actual reason to feel that way. If we read books that teach concepts contrary to the teaching of Christ, we will find our minds consumed with those thoughts rather than thoughts of God. It is nearly impossible to be zealous for God if your mind is not consistently and wholly focused on Him. By reading inspiring articles and books, words that are uplifting and point to Jesus, you will find yourself developing a positive attitude; someone with a positive attitude is far more likely to see possibilities. When we begin to dream of what is possible, we become inspired to take action. Taking action is what zeal is all about; we cannot help but move.

• Be intentional with what you allow to influence you. Just as reading has a profound influence on your life, so too does what you listen to, what you watch, and those with whom you associate. Music is powerful and can easily lift one to the heights of worship; on the flip side it can bring you to the depths of despair. We need to guard against anything that leads our thoughts away from God. This isn’t a statement against any particular type of music, but rather just a warning to take notice of how certain songs affect you. The same can be said for television and movies. The windows are the eyes of the soul, so be careful what you feed your innermost being. In our modern age, we are bombarded with images at an unprecedented rate every day. Most of the images are not designed to draw us closer to God, and many of them will do the exact opposite. To be zealous we must keep our hearts and minds clean and focused on Christ. In the same way, those with whom you associate hold great influence over you. We must be intentional in choosing our friends. If we surround ourselves with those who are intent on pursuing what the world has to offer, we will find ourselves carried along for the ride. Instead, choose to associate with those who are seeking God, with people who are passionately pursuing Jesus. Hanging out with zealous people will develop zeal in your own life in a somewhat passive manner because zeal is highly contagious!

• Become active in causes that are close to the heart of God. As you learn more about the character of God, immerse yourself in causes that work towards fulfilling His mission on earth. Jesus said to care for the poor, so get involved with ministries and organizations that work to alleviate hunger and poverty. Since God detests injustice, become an advocate for the oppressed. As you give yourself to become the hands and feet of Jesus, your character will align with God’s. As your heart begins to beat in rhythm with His, you will be consumed with desiring Him more and more. This is where passion is born. This is the seed of zealousness.

The ideas listed above are far from exhaustive, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on developing zeal for God. What have been the turning points in your life, the “a-ha moments” that pushed you deeper in your relationship with Him? It is through the sharing of ideas that we will all grow closer to our Lord. Let me know how these suggestions work for you, and let’s pray for one another that we might all grow in our zeal for the One who gave His life so that we might live. Seek Jesus only and always and you will discover your own passion and zeal for following Him.

Zealous for God

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We read much in scripture about zeal. In Psalm 69, David speaks of the zeal of God consuming him despite all the calamities that were being inflicted upon him. Psalm 119 finds the author literally worn out by his zeal; he is exhausted by a righteous anger over those who have forsaken the teachings of the Lord. In the New Testament, Paul writes in Galatians that it is good to be zealous for the right things (Galatians 4:18).

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The book of Titus states that God’s people will be zealous to do good works. Finally, in the book of Revelation, Jesus Himself tells us to be zealous and repent. Different versions of the Bible translate the word zealous as earnest, eager or committed. The point is that we should diligently strive to do the good works that Christ has given us to do.

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Our Daily Walk

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On a day to day basis, how often are you focused on clearly living a life that reflects Jesus? Do you consistently weigh your words and measure your actions by the character of Christ? When you lie down at night reflecting on your day, do you see a life that looks like Jesus? Our daily activities speak volumes about our heart. We profess to love Christ and swear He is our Lord, but we lead unremarkable lives that bear a far greater resemblance to the societal norm than to the holiness of God; there is a disconnect between our words and our actions that we must discover and overcome.

In my own life, I am sick of the hypocrisy that is my walk. Like the apostle Paul, I do the things I don’t want to do while the things I want to do get left undone (Romans 7:15, 19). It doesn’t matter whether we commit what are perceived to be small sins or large sins; any time spent engaged in activity not honoring Christ is time we are wasting. Time is not redeemable; we have what we have and then it is gone. Every wasted moment vanishes forever and we find ourselves one breath closer to death. It is urgent and imperative that we focus every second of our lives on Christ. Every day must be viewed as a new opportunity to reflect His love to others, while every night should be cherished as a time to bask in His presence and peace. Our time grows ever shorter and there are so many who still have never heard.

One life – yours or mine – can make a significant difference in our world. We never know what effect a simple act of kindness or a gentle word will have. You might bring hope to the one who will go on to discover a cure for cancer or to someone who will simply “pay it forward” and offer help to one who is homeless. We never know what God will do with one seemingly insignificant act on our part. Never pass up an opportunity to share some kindness; remember to always reflect the love of Christ in every moment of your day.

The effort required to fully seize each moment is not trivial; it requires discipline and focus. We may never perfectly achieve the goal, but every second that we grasp for the glory of God is one more second than we had previously embraced. Moment by moment we develop a life that looks like Jesus and reflects His love and glory to those around us. The world does not need more lip service Christians; the world needs followers of Jesus who are willing to devote their lives to loving God and serving others. Imagine the impact on the nations if only those who profess Jesus as their Savior would engage their world as a disciple of Christ. Poverty would be eradicated, crime rates would plummet and homelessness would become a thing of the past. Racial tensions would fade into history, and justice would reign across the planet. That this is not happening rests solely at our feet. It is we who call ourselves Christians that are failing to act; we are the ones who are choosing lives of contentment over lives of passion and action. It is we who will one day face our God and be asked to give an accounting for the way in which we spent our time.

What are you doing today that reflects the love of God? How are you spending your time? These are questions we all must ask ourselves every day. I confess that more days than not I am inconsistent in my walk. I have flashes of brilliance wherein I reflect the love of Christ, but they are couched between periods of darkness when I am self-absorbed and serving no kingdom purpose. You and I must overcome our inconsistencies and through God’s strength learn to discipline ourselves to live a life that reflects the love of Jesus to a dark and dying world. To this we are all called; it is the will of God for the life of every one of us. Before you leave your house today, prayerfully determine that you will reflect Jesus to every single person you encounter. Walk boldly through your world with the knowledge that the love of Christ is spilling out from you; feel His power course through your veins and seek opportunities to serve someone in need. Every moment will be won for Christ or lost to the enemy. Determine to live the life you promised to Christ. Seize the moment and save the day. The world needs you to live out your commitment. Together let us live our calling to love God and serve others. Enough of Christianity; let’s live as followers of Christ.

Seize Every Moment

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What do you want out of life, what is it you hope to accomplish? Have you ever taken the time to consider the legacy you want to leave behind or to list the things you hope to accomplish before you die? Many of us float through life oblivious to the opportunities that we have every day. Without a clearly defined purpose we allow life to happen to us rather than impacting the world. As followers of Jesus, we all have a clearly defined goal: to love God and to love people; to serve Him and serve others. While we may all agree with this premise in principle, living it out in our daily lives presents much more of a challenge. The stresses of life sap our energy and the shiny things we’re convinced we need divert our attention. Without passion and focus, our lives will never fulfill what we were created to be.

One of the problems we encounter is that we’ve developed a self-centered view of the world. We see everything as it relates to our lives and in relation to how it affects our comfort and well-being. As long as we are focused on our own lives, we will never be able to follow Jesus completely. If you walk around staring into a mirror, you will consistently crash into things that will knock you off course; if our gaze is always on our own reflection, we will never see the people directly in front of us. We must always be alert, having our head up and our eyes fixed on Jesus. Only then will we be able to see the dangers and the opportunities that are before us.

Seeing an opportunity and taking action on it are two very different things. Most of us walk by potential moments of service every day. We have the chance to reflect the love and character of God, but we deem ourselves too busy or worse yet we are simply too preoccupied to even notice. I can attest that there are few feelings worse than recognizing a missed opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. It stays with you at night and gnaws at your soul. The only way to avoid that feeling is to seize every moment as it presents itself. In all things, both small and large, reflect Jesus and do the things you know He would do. Get into the habit of doing a selfless deed for someone every day and record that action in a journal before you go to bed. After 30 days your life will look very different from the way it does today. By consciously choosing to serve others at no benefit to yourself, you will transform your character to be more like Christ.

Each moment that we let slip by can never be recaptured; it is lost in our history, forever etched into the past. We will never know what effect seizing that opportunity may have had on a person or indeed the entire world. A regular Sunday school teacher seized the moment and led his student to trust in Christ as his Savior. That student, D.L. Moody, went on to lead millions to Christ through his preaching and the legacy of his work continues today. One man seized a moment and had an impact on the world that is difficult to quantify. Jesus asked that the difficult task of the cross be taken from Him if there was any other way; but when the moment of truth came, He seized the moment to do the will of His Father. He seized the divine moment and literally changed the history of the world forever.

We were not created to live aimless and disinterested lives. We were created for passion and for involvement in the lives of others. We have been given the task of continuing the mission of Jesus. Every day there are moments that we can either seize or ignore; our response creates the measure of our character. Our goal should be to seize each moment as it comes and wring out every ounce of life we are able to drain from it. Life is not about what we can achieve, but rather what we can give. Earl Nightingale once defined success as “the continual pursuit of a worthwhile goal.” By that definition, we who have chosen to follow Christ are already successful; we no longer should feel any pressure to prove ourselves to the world. Instead, we should concern ourselves only with proving ourselves faithful to the One we serve. This proof is found in how we respond to the moments of our lives. Ask God to make you aware of the divine moments you encounter every day. Never walk away from an opportunity to reflect His love and to serve others. Seize every moment; live the life He created you to live. May this be our goal, and one which we passionately pursue.

Chasing the Wrong Goal

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Somehow we lost our way. At some point in time we decided that the things of this world were more beneficial than the things of God. We traded eternity for temporal, spiritual for material. Inexplicably we lost our awe of God and in turn became enamored with ourselves. I’m not sure exactly when it happened or what we possibly could have been thinking; I only know that we now find ourselves mired deep in the mess of the results. God spoke, we heard, and we ignored; instead we listened to the siren song of the American dream. We saw that it was desirable and we took of it, just as our oldest ancestors did in the Garden of Eden. We have learned little in the past six thousand years or so, and yet God continues to call us to Him.

Our modern apples of temptation are money and pleasure. We seek to fulfill the longing in our hearts with physical instead of spiritual means. At our core we are created in God’s image which means deep inside we are spirit beings. One cannot fill the spiritual with the physical; it simply will not work. The only way to fill the deep gnawing in your soul is to seek what is important to God, those things that further His kingdom on earth. No amount of wealth, fame or entertainment can satisfy the hunger inside. Only by surrendering to Jesus and living a life of service to Him will we find any peace and comfort for our longings.

We have been conditioned to believe that happiness is based on what we achieve and acquire. Jesus taught instead that true meaning is found only through how we serve and sacrifice. Instead of hoarding for ourselves, we are to share with anyone in need. Rather than do whatever it takes to get ahead, we must humbly put others before our own desires and dreams. This is the only goal worth pursuing, because this goal leads to the life found only in Jesus Christ. We can’t achieve our way to Heaven, nor can we reach there by climbing up our pile of stuff. The way to Heaven is the way of Jesus; His is the way of humility and service to others.

We all have dreams, passions and abilities; it is not that we must put these aside, but rather we must use them to achieve the purposes of Jesus rather than our own aspirations. Of course, it is a beautiful thing when our dreams align with His. This is where our life begins to resemble that of Christ; we begin to want what He wants, and to act and love as He does. We are all uniquely gifted and prepared for accomplishing good works for God, but we will not live out our calling as long as we continue to pursue the wrong goal. The goal is not the American dream but rather the mission of Christ. The goal is to give rather than get, to serve rather than be served. This is what it looks like to follow Jesus; this is the mark to which we must all aspire.

We have a lot to unlearn. All our lives we have been taught to grab all that we can, to chase after all we deserve. As a reminder, the Bible teaches that what we deserve is a life spent separated from God, an eternity in hell. Do you really wish to chase after what you deserve? By the grace of God we have an alternative way; we can choose to follow Him and obtain a life that is far beyond what we deserve, a life filled with His love and mercy. It is not an easy life, but it is one of infinite worth and satisfaction. Turning your back on the American dream will be difficult; you will be ridiculed and perhaps even cut off from your friends and family. No longer will you want what others want; no longer will you live life for yourself. The reward is beyond words. Only when you let go of all you think you want will you truly find what you’ve been seeking.

Are you ready to pursue the mission of Christ? Can you let go of the goal of the American dream, the seeking of wealth and entertainment? Jesus said there was much work to be done but few willing to engage in it. We have been squandering daylight and the night is coming. Darkness continues to invade our world and we must fight back with the light of the love of Jesus. We must pursue Christ at any cost. Our mission is straightforward and clear: love God and love people; serve God and serve people. Are your goals in line with God’s? Are you pursuing things of eternal worth? Or are you seeking that which you cannot keep, clutching to what you must leave behind? Jesus is the only way to peace and fulfillment. Pursue Him with all that you have; make Him your sole focus. This is the only goal worth achieving.