Even If i Walk Alone

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

Philippians

Consistency

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Consistency is what most hinders us from living a life that looks like Christ. We can live for Jesus in the moment, maybe even for a day or a week, but given enough time, we waver. Old habits creep in, and new habits get lost in the busyness of our day-to-day lives. Before we know it, and despite our best efforts, we are once again stuck in a pattern of life that looks much more like the world than it does Jesus.

What’s wrong with us? We know what He did for us. We love Him. Why does it never seem to be enough? I wish I had a definitive answer for you, but I don’t. I do have some ideas, though.

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Good Enough Is Never Enough

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Because Jesus is in Heaven, we sometimes forget how close He is. What if He were still on earth in His physical form? If He gave you a task to do, how urgent would you be in getting it done? Would you put it off until a more convenient time or jump right on it? What sort of effort would you expend to accomplish it? Would you cut corners and do just enough to call it done?

I think every one of us would do whatever we could to put in our best effort to present Jesus with a result that reflected how much we revere and love Him. Shouldn’t we do the same even though He is not speaking to us in His human flesh? When serving Jesus, good enough is never enough. (Colossians 3:23-24; Ecclesiastes 9:10)

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Never for Nothing

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Do you ever grow discouraged in your walk with Christ? People who reject Him, spit on His image, and defame His name go unpunished and even seem to live more carefree and happy than we do. Are you ever tempted to ask, “Is this all worth it?” Wouldn’t it be easier to just stop trying to follow Him and swim against the tide than to always seem to face conflict and struggle? (Psalm 73:3-5)

Maybe you wonder if the payoff will be worth the price? When the world is intent on wearing you down (John 16:33; 1 John 5:19), doubts will creep into the hearts of even the most steadfast. But following Jesus is never for nothing. It is worth the struggle, and He is always worth the pain. (Romans 8:18; Hebrews 12:11)

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Hypocrisy

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If you paid a stranger to watch the way you live for a week, what would they say was the focus of your life? Would they see Jesus? Would they understand what it meant to be a Christian from watching what you did and listening to what you said? We Christians can talk a pretty good game, especially when we’re cloistered safe inside our places of worship or surrounded by like-minded believers.

The manner in which we exercise our faith is less convincing. There’s an old word for that: hypocrisy. Nobody I know ever wants to be called a hypocrite, but if your actions don’t align with your words, what else would someone call you? To behave like this is the same as looking at yourself in a mirror and then forgetting what you look like the moment you turn away. (James 1:23-24)

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Vertical Prayers

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While we should be praying vertical prayers, too often we are stuck praying in a horizontal manner. I’m not speaking of the posture we assume when we pray, but the direction of the content of our prayers. There’s a stark difference between the prayers of Jesus and the way we pray. So many of our prayers focus on the people and the world around us but give little attention to the One we are speaking to.

Part of the problem is that we lack the proper realization of what prayer is. It’s not a vehicle to get all the things we desire or even need. After all, God already knows what we need before we ask. (Matthew 6:7-8) We’re not bringing Him new information, but it often seems as if we think we are.

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