Even If i Walk Alone

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

Philippians

Let Us Pray

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I am convicted we who are followers of Jesus are not spending enough time in prayer. We wring our hands about the state of the world and continued attacks on Christianity while neglecting to do the one thing we can do to change it all: pray. Too many of our prayers have become rote and boring. We pray before our meals, before shutting down at night, and perhaps even first thing in the morning.

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But how many of those prayers are for other people, our country, our leaders, persecuted brothers and sisters, or for the lost around the globe? Our prayers are too selfish, too mechanical, and too safe. We need to open our hearts and pour out our cries before the Lord. Let us pray prayers that will move the heart of God rather than bring us more comfort and success.

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Trust Him

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It is not uncommon when praying to reason with God and present our arguments why He should grant our requests. The idea would be laughable if not so common. While God wants us to bring our petitions before Him (Philippians 4:6), when we do so, we should simply lay them at His feet. God knows everything we need (Matthew 6:31-33) and has the context of every person and event past, present, and future.

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Therefore, He alone can make the wisest decision regarding our appeal. When we go on about why Jesus should give us what we are asking for, we make ourselves a foolish babbler, filling our prayers with many words that impress no one except ourselves. Again, Jesus knows what we need before we even ask Him (Matthew 6:7-8). We can trust Him, and we must if we want to have a vibrant prayer life.

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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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Be Alert

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We don’t know when Jesus will return, but we know He will. As the days and years roll by, there is a temptation to grow complacent as we wait for Him to come and take us home. It becomes easy to believe that it won’t happen in our lifetime. But Jesus warned us to be alert because His coming could occur at any moment (Mark 13:35-37). In the same passage, He warns us not to be found sleeping.

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We are to remain vigilant, always doing the work of the Kingdom. There is no time to relax, no excuse for laziness in serving Christ. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want the return of Christ to catch me off-guard. This should affect every action we undertake and every decision we make.

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Thinking Eternally

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As people, we obsess over numbers. We count dollars to quantify net worth, attendees to measure churches, and followers to determine popularity on social media. But did you ever stop to think that numbers are a product of humanity, not of eternity? Counting is irrelevant to God because numbering anything in eternity would be futile.

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How many years will we spend in Heaven with God? That’s an unanswerable question because years have no meaning when one is thinking eternally. My point is the very measure we use on earth has no meaning when we are thinking eternally. And that is how we should spend our days, focused on what is coming rather than what we have right now.

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