Even If i Walk Alone

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

prayer

We Don’t Pray as We Should

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I’m embarking on a new book project examining the prayers of the Bible. Inspired by hearing a preacher state that our prayers are vastly different from those found in God’s Word, I began looking into it. While only in the early stages of my project, the evidence is already overwhelming that we don’t pray as we should. We know humans are prideful and selfish, but nowhere is that more obvious than in the content of our prayers.

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This is especially true in the Western world, but I fear it is becoming more widespread as the teachings of Western Christianity spread throughout the globe. Knowing prayer is fundamental to our growth in Christ, we will do well to revisit the examples of prayer given by those who have gone before us.

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Our Brothers and Sisters

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“Christians in other nations are not a topic about which we can be uninterested or a cause that we can occasionally champion. They are our family, our brothers and sisters for eternity,” writes Voice of the Martyrs president Cole Richards. Violence against Christians is ramping up in many nations. As the days grow shorter and evil increases, the people of God are increasingly finding themselves the target of man’s hostility.

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Because we may still have a modicum of religious freedom where we live is no excuse to forget our brothers and sisters who are suffering. We should be on our knees every day praying for their strength, perseverance, and deliverance. We must also realize that the same persecutions are coming for us, and we must be ready to stand with the same resolve as our brothers and sisters.

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Disciplined

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When it comes to self-discipline, I see myself as more disciplined than many, but less disciplined than I should be. Reflecting on my life, I find I am now more disciplined than at other times in my life and less disciplined than at others. All this to say that self-discipline is a challenge we must constantly address and perhaps never fully master.

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And yet it is key not only to a productive life but to living life in a manner that glorifies and pleases our Lord. To be disciplined in ways that do not promote our spiritual growth may be noble pursuits, but in the end, they won’t count for anything. The only discipline worth pursuing is that which brings us closer to Christ and molds us into His image.

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Human Trafficking and Slavery

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Recently I watched the movie, “Sound of Freedom,” which details some of the horrors of human trafficking and slavery. For reasons I cannot fathom after viewing the film, the media has done their best to demonize the film, calling it right-wing conspiracy and political fodder. There is nothing remotely political in the film, and aside from the quoting of a Bible verse, nothing to identify it as any sort of Christian film. There is also no shortage of controversy surrounding the real-life protagonist of the film and his organization.

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But all of that is just noise to distract from the very real tragedy of human trafficking. Of course, exact statistics on the number of people trafficked or enslaved are impossible to gather, but conservative estimates are 25 million individuals trafficked each year, and close to 50 million who are living in modern-day slavery. These are not numbers any follower of Jesus should be comfortable with.

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Time to Pray

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After hitting the snooze button a couple of times, I found myself running late on a day that already held more to do than there were available hours. As I swung my legs over the bed, in my mind, I began rehearsing the day to come. Trying to schedule each piece mentally, I hit a jarring thought. Thinking of everything I had to do, I thought, “…and I need to squeeze in time to pray.” That may be one of the worst thoughts my brain has ever contemplated.

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Squeeze time in to pray? The Holy Spirit immediately convicted me of how wrong my thinking was at that moment. I anchor each of my days by doing nothing before spending time in God’s Word and praying. I know nothing sets me up for failure more than neglecting those priorities. And yet, here I was contemplating squeezing in the time to pray.

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