Even If i Walk Alone

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

priorities

Turn Off the Noise

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To live lives wholly devoted to Christ, we have to turn off the noise. The noise is everything that keeps us from focusing on Jesus. The news, entertainment, jobs, relationships, and above everything else, our cell phones—it’s all noise. Over the last twenty years, we’ve gone from a world where only a few kept a smartphone in their pockets to a world where everyone has a smartphone in their pockets.

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Every day we all observe people who can’t seem to look away from their phones. Too often, we are those people. If we can’t turn off the noise in our lives, we won’t be able to sense the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

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What’s Your Plan?

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What’s your plan to grow in your knowledge of God and His Word? How’s it going? As I write this, we’re almost a month into a new year, and I’m guessing scores of resolutions have already died a quick and quiet death. How’s that Bible reading plan progressing? Are you on track? How about getting up early so you can spend some quiet time in prayer with the Lord?

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Are you still making it out of bed into the cold, dark morning? History and experience say things probably aren’t going so well. I’m actually ahead on my Bible reading, but falling woefully short in other areas. There are legitimate reasons we fall off target. But, the truth is, we are all trading our heartfelt commitments for things that are far inferior and worthless.

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Two Ways to Live

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There are two ways to live. You can follow God’s perfect way as revealed in His Word, or you can subscribe to the wisdom of man. Every single one of us will choose one of these two ways to plot their course through life. Choosing God means abandoning your life to Jesus. It’s a path of surrender and few will go this way. The alternative is to rely on the wisdom of man.

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This path is wide and you’ll find plenty of company along the way to share your journey. Neither way will be free of struggle. Life in this world comes with a heavy dose of pain, discouragement, and defeat. The choice between the two ways to live, then, comes down to your motivation, not whether one path is easier than the other.

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What Sin Is

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Each of us wrestles with the problem of sin. To understand how to win this battle, we must first define the terms. What is sin? Sin is any violation of God’s Law (1 John 3:4). We know everyone is guilty of this (Romans 3:23). Holiness is the goal because our lives are supposed to look like Jesus. We can’t look like Jesus when we are continuing to indulge in the same sinful patterns that we always have.

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None of us can live a sinless life; only Jesus was able to accomplish that. But each of our lives should move closer to that ideal every day. God’s law is unchanging, and He has plainly stated what violating His law involves (Mark 12:28-31). When we love anything more than God or when we do not love others as much as we love ourselves, we are sinning. There is no vagueness about what sin is.

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Standing Firm

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It has been said if you can’t stand firm, then you won’t stand at all. We see this proven out in our spiritual lives. No one can claim they stand for Jesus if they won’t stand for Him under trials and difficulties. Standing firm means to stand without wavering. You can’t be a warrior for Jesus one day and live your life as if He wasn’t Lord the next.

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In Ephesians 6:10-18, Paul tells us to always be prepared for the day of battle by putting on the full armor of God. If we do that, we will hold fast to Christ regardless of what the enemy sends our way (Ephesians 6:13). The easiest way to not lose our footing is to never take our eyes off Jesus, never stop delighting in His Word, and never stop reminding ourselves that our life is not our own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Galatians 2:19-20).

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