Even If i Walk Alone

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

priorities

Distracted by Jesus

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What if we were so focused on the mission of Christ that we could only be distracted by Jesus Himself? We live in a world designed to distract, and few of us are very good at resisting the siren call of a pleasant distraction. It’s always easier to do the more comfortable things than the difficult. Living as a disciple of Jesus will never be easy. If it is, you probably aren’t living for Him.

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Jesus promised us we would have trouble in this world (John 16:33). We often think in terms of persecution or being mocked when we read that verse, but distraction wreaks havoc in our lives and causes all sorts of trouble. Nothing will knock you off course faster than a distraction, and distractions are the killer of all dreams. No one can be on mission and distracted at the same time.

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The Joy of the Lord

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Since the beginning days of the coronavirus and the drama that unfolded in the response to it, the racial tensions that began exploding soon after, and a crazed political environment, the world has seemed to have just gone mad. Every issue seems to polarize us, dividing friends, family, and most disturbingly the church. In a matter of months, what we considered the normalcy of life has been discarded. I’ve seen a lot of dramatic changes in my lifetime, but never ones that occurred so suddenly and were so divisive.

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I don’t know when or if this all ends, or what life looks like on the other side of this seemingly unending tunnel of darkness. But somehow, in the middle of all the chaos and uncertainty, I have found my joy of the Lord increasing. I am more aware of His presence than ever, and despite the anger and confusion swirling around me, I am at peace.

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A Higher Standard

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Maybe it’s just me. You won’t find it explicitly in the Bible, and I will be the last to add anything to the Word of God. Still, it appears it is at least implied that disciples of Jesus should live their lives held to a higher standard. After all, our model is none other than Jesus Christ. How could we help but live dramatically different lives than those around us? It’s what He did.

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We too easily surrender to the malaise of Western Christianity and forget the purpose of our lives. Our mission is to tell everyone the good news of Jesus. It’s to look after the orphans, widows, sick, impoverished, and imprisoned (James 1:27; Matthew 25:31-46). And we are to do these things with excellence (Colossians 3:23-24).

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Think of Jesus

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It’s sad, but it seems far too easy to forget what Jesus did for us. He was a man unlike any other. Yes, we can explain this by the fact Jesus was at once fully God and fully man. How could He help but be extraordinary? It’s important to recognize that in His humanness, Jesus experienced the free will to choose His path. He didn’t have to be obedient, but He chose to on our behalf. Before Christ went to the cross, He asked the Father to provide another option (Matthew 26:36-39).

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He didn’t want to go to the cross, but He went so we might live. Jesus could have saved Himself, but He did not. Imagine the horror among all those who were torturing Him if Jesus would have suddenly called 10,000 angels to assist Him. He could have done that, but He didn’t. He kept His love for God and His love for every human soul at the forefront. Jesus could have saved Himself but opted instead to save you and me.

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Self-Promotion

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To me, the teachings of A. W. Tozer remain timeless. Perhaps no one else in history resonates with me as he does. Though he passed away nearly sixty years ago, his words are as relevant today as they were when he was preaching. The things he said are almost prescient. In a quote I read from him this week, he said, “I am not in the business of promoting myself; I am in the business of surrendering to the Holy Spirit.”

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Today, self-promotion is all the rage. It’s all about how many followers we have on Facebook, how many likes we have on Instagram, and whether we’re trending on Twitter. A new goal for many is to produce a video that goes viral on YouTube. Today the aim is getting the eyeballs of others to look at what we’re doing.

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