Even If i Walk Alone

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

Revelation

Be Bold

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In the face of unrelenting pressure to compromise, we must be bold and stand firm on the authority of Scripture. Growing up, peer pressure was a given. The desire to fit in, to be liked or even popular, is an enormous weight all people face as they go through their school years. I think we all thought once we moved into the “real world” that peer pressure would go away to a certain extent.

young man determined to be bold in his commitment to surrender to Jesus and live out his salvation with boldness and courage in true discipleship

But it never goes away; it just manifests in different forms. The culture is always trying to conform us to its idyllic mold. The problem is their idea of “acceptable behavior and speech” is grounded in millennia of wrong thinking and sinful attitudes. To conform to the world is to live at odds with the one true God.

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Busy, Distracted, and Noisy

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Our lives are busy, distracted, and noisy. As long as this is the case, we will never experience what God intends for our lives to be. We will never experience what it is to be close to Him. To come to the full knowledge of God, our lives must revolve around nothing other than Him (Matthew 6:33). It is no small blessing that nothing on earth compares to the glory and majesty of Jesus because that means we can set our affections on the One more valuable and magnificent than any other (Colossians 3:1–2)!

Man drinking coffee, signing papers, and talking on the phone all at the same time because his life is busy, distracted, and noisy

If only we lived as if we believed this were true. Instead, we fill our minds with indecency, our ears with heresy, and our lives with irrelevancy (Philippians 4:8; 2 Timothy 4:3–4). We can not conceive of how much better our lives would be if we eschewed the fallen things of this world and lived lives devoted to the Savior of our souls.

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Downplaying the Devil

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Christians spend too much time downplaying the Devil. I’m sure you are familiar with the old adage, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” The typical response to hearing that is a smile and a knowing nod. Did you ever consider how ridiculous that statement is? Hell has no fury like a fallen human? Are we serious? It’s one more example of how flippant we can be when discussing things we should take with the utmost seriousness.

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We’ve reduced the power of Satan to that of a byline or a joke. This is where it is typical for a writer to give the caveat of something like, “We have to be careful not to take this to extremes, or fall into legalism.” But you know what? I hate caveats. Truth is truth, and the fact it makes some uncomfortable is no reason to soften it. We need to treat the power of Satan and the power of God with the respect and trepidation both deserve.

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Don’t Forget to Pray

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Don’t forget to pray for our brothers and sisters throughout the world who are suffering for the cause of Christ. Isn’t it a little crazy and even a little to our shame that we need to be reminded to do something so basic yet powerful? Why is prayer so neglected in the lives of most Christians? Having an open channel to the throne of God would seem to be enough to keep us forever on our proverbial knees (Hebrews 4:16).

prayer,persecution,commitment,focus,priorities,selfishness,persecuteddon't forget to pray

Where else will we learn so much about our Creator? What other activity is so nourishing to our minds and souls? And yet prayer is often only remembered when we find ourselves in need. James writes, “The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful” (James 5:16). Why are we so reluctant to tap into such power?

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God’s Call to Holiness

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God’s call to holiness is not optional for any believer. Holiness is the standard God set for us in the beginning and continues to expect from us (Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:15–16). When we love the Father, we will desire to do what pleases Him because we all want to be counted like Paul when we die (2 Timothy 4:7).

commitment,discipleship,discipline,focus,holiness,lordship,sanctification,surrender,holy

We all want to run the race well and hear Jesus speak the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant; enter into my rest” (Matthew 25:21). We dare not approach Heaven with stained garments uncleansed by the sacrificial blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:10). Sanctification always follows true repentance, so if we aren’t concerned with holiness, it is hard to conceive of our repentance as genuine.

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