Even If i Walk Alone

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

Romans

Renewing Your Mind

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Disciples of Jesus are always going through the process of renewing their minds. The apostle Paul said we should be “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Renewing your mind means much more than replacing dreadful habits with better ones, old habits with new ones. The renewing is a restoring to what God originally intended. When Christ returns, He will restore all things to their original design.

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All of nature, all the animals, birds of the sky, and fish of the sea will be resplendent in a majesty we have never seen. They will be renewed into what they were created to be. It will be the same with humanity. God makes all things new (Revelation 21:5). Renewing your mind then is to be a part of what God is doing in the world. It is to be a part of His redemption story.

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The Problem of Evil

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My heart broke this past week when the lead singer of a popular Christian band renounced his faith in Jesus in a very public way. What broke my heart was not the damage this might do to the faith of those over whom he has influence, although that is troublesome. It didn’t break my heart the way the media latched onto the story and the damage something like this inflicts on the Church, although this too is cause for prayer.

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The Church will survive. The gates of Hell will not prevail against us, no matter how unexpected the attack (Matthew 16:18). What broke my heart were the reasons this individual gave for no longer believing.  There are straightforward answers to his questions, and yet somehow, no one in this man’s life could counsel him with the truth.

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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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It is Well

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Growing up as a preacher’s kid, I think I learned every hymn forward, backward, and upside down (except for the third verses, of course, which are inexplicably always skipped!). As I grew older, my taste in music transformed and I left the old hymns in the past. Now and again, someone releases a modern remake of an old hymn, and it provides a sweet sense of nostalgia. Updated music has helped me rediscover a few old songs. There is one, however, that over the past couple of years has resonated with me in its original form.

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I love the haunting and solemn melody of “It Is Well with My Soul”. I have an entire playlist of different instrumental versions of the hymn that I often play during my morning prayer time. It stops me in my tracks every time to ponder how, with Jesus, it is well with my soul regardless of what’s swirling around me.

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The Faithfulness of God

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All followers of Jesus desire to grow in their faith. We feel if we had more faith, we wouldn’t get so stressed out or worry as much. So, we pray and study; we beg and plead, all the while asking God for more faith. What if we’re focusing on the wrong thing? What if, instead of focusing on our own faith, we focused on the faithfulness of God?

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His love and provision are everlasting. They never fail. He never leaves our side and is always going with us, no matter what we may face (Deuteronomy 31:6). I believe if we grasped the faithfulness of God, the need for our own faith would be almost irrelevant. He is already more than we could ever need.

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