Even If i Walk Alone

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

priorities

Taking Offense

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Nothing good ever comes from taking offense. Think back over your life. When you have been offended, did it ever end well? Did taking offense lead to you looking more or less like Jesus? It amazes me how Jesus never took offense when people ridiculed or even blasphemed Him. He just took it in stride. He looked beyond the comment and into the heart of the one making the comment. He loved them.

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This is not our response when someone wrongs us. We are quick to defend when we perceive ourselves to be wounded. Our pride causes us to withdraw rather than reach out in love. To be blunt, taking offense makes us look like a spoiled child.

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Spring Cleaning

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I love when the air begins to warm, and the colors of spring push out the grays and whites of winter. I am not a lover of snow or cold, so my soul gets a little lighter each time spring rolls around. It’s a time to open windows and take long walks outside again. With the arrival of Spring, many of our thoughts turn to the proverbial “spring cleaning”.

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We dust and sweep the corners of our living areas and declutter the storage spaces. Spring is a time of fresh beginnings, and we want everything to be sparkling and new again. If we undertake such chores for our home on an annual basis, why do we not do the same for our eternal souls?

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From Flesh to Spirit

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In our fallen world, we have all succumbed to living our lives for our fleshly, carnal desires instead of for our spiritual calling. God calls us to move from flesh to spirit, but most of us spend our time moving in the opposite direction. The world looks so enticing. Surely just sampling what it offers wouldn’t hurt anything, right?

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That strategy did not work out well for Adam and Eve, and by extension has caused us problems from the day we were born. We want the tangible delights we can taste, touch, and see. Oh, and we want them now. Our flesh is always pulling us towards the things of this world and away from our true spiritual nature.

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Running Out of Time

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Life is shorter than we think. Few of us ever think of tomorrow as being our last day on earth, much less of our next breath as being our last. No matter who we are, how well we take care of ourselves, or how much security we place around us, the end will always come sooner than we expect. When our time comes, there will be the inevitable regrets of things undone, words left unsaid, and opportunities never seized.

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There are not enough years in our lifespan to do all we desire to do. Instead of viewing these facts through a morbid or depressing lens, we should instead use this knowledge to understand the urgency of our lives and prioritize our activities in a manner that reflects that urgency.

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What Influences You?

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Each of us is the sum of the places we’ve been, the books we’ve read, the media we’ve watched, the music we listen to, and the people with whom we surround ourselves. We have a responsibility to monitor what is going into our minds because it has a profound impact on the health of our hearts. Jesus called us to follow Him, but we spend most of our time pursuing anyone and anything other than Christ.

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It doesn’t square with our claim that He is our Lord. So much of who we become is not directed by Jesus at all. In fact, His influence seems to be so much less than everything else that is shaping us. What influences you?

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