Even If i Walk Alone

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

purpose

Nothing Without God

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As I was praying recently, a thought occurred to me: “I am nothing except what You are through me.” We love to pose and posture. We love to talk about our accomplishments and achievements. But the reality is nothing we do would be possible if not for God. He created us, gave us our skills and abilities, provided our wisdom, and nurtured our development.

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image © hriana

Not a single thing we have ever done would be possible if not for some gift of God. That doesn’t mean everything we’ve done is good or blessed, but it does mean we are all absolutely useless and weak except for the providence of our loving Creator.
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Love and Free Will

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Having been created with free will, we are free to choose, free to love, and free to serve. It was for these things we were created in the very image of God Himself. Free will has a dark side as well. Since we are free to choose we are also free to hate, to be selfish, and to reject the God who gave us life. We can – and usually do – pursue whatever we desire.

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image © Sergey Nivens

There is no master blueprint for your life; that would violate the very notion of free will. God created you with everything you would need to live the incredible life He envisioned for you. It is us – you and me – who make the choices that send our lives off the rails.
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Urgency

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It’s not common for people in decent health to think of death. Most of us feel invincible. We’re aware we’ll die someday, but it always seems as if that is a long way away. People who are focused on death generally are thought to have some sort of mental or emotional problem. The real problem is as long as we remain oblivious to the frailty of our life, we will be less apt to make every moment count.

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image © BillionPhotos.com

Assuming death is years or even decades away tends to make us less focused on doing what matters most in life right now. That leads to a life diametrically opposed to the one Jesus instructed us to live.
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More of God and Less of Me

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I’ve often heard Christians say that they want more of God and less of themselves. It’s a noble but misguided prayer. The goal is not to have more of God and less of us, but rather to have all of God and none of us. This is more than just semantics. For too long we’ve misrepresented what it means to surrender our lives to Jesus.

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image © Christin Lola

When you surrender, you give up everything. Yet far more often than not, very little is surrendered to Jesus. We’ll make a few tweaks to our lifestyle, but significant and lasting change is rare. Following Jesus dictates a total surrender of our lives.
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Are You a Spectator Christian?

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A spectator is someone who attends an event and watches from the sidelines. They don’t actually get involved, but they want to be near it. That’s as far as they want to go in being part of it. So I ask you: are you a spectator Christian? Have you filled yourself up on knowledge about Jesus without ever actually internalizing it?

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image © luis_escriv

Of course the knee-jerk reaction of most would be to bristle at the question. Why would anyone ever admit to such a shallow commitment, right? So keep this just between you and God when you answer. Let’s all be honest here. Are you actively engaged in following Jesus or simply a spectator Christian?
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