Even If i Walk Alone

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

Vital Things

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We need to pray for vital things. We consume too much time praying for trivialities and selfish requests. Instead of focusing on weightier matters, we pray for health, financial needs, job and relationship decisions, and for favor. These petitions are important to us, but are they vital to furthering the Kingdon of God?

I’m certain you could make arguments they can be, but I hope we can agree that in the grand scheme of things, our personal comfort, happiness, health, and pleasure are irrelevant and insignificant in the grand story of God’s redemptive plan. The Lord knows what we need and promises to supply us from His eternal riches. (Matthew 6:7-8; Philippians 4:19) We should rest in His promises and shift our focus from our needs to the needs of the Kingdom. (Matthew 6:33; Colossians 3:1–2)

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Made for This

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Brothers and sisters, we were made for this: to live every moment of our lives for the glory of Christ and no one else. (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17) We do not live for the praise of men or for any self-satisfaction. (Galatians 1:10; John 5:44) God created us in His image (Genesis 1:27) and it is our duty to spend every ounce of life in this world learning to look like Him. (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 5:1)

You will never live the life God intends for you until you stop pursuing your desires and ambitions. (Luke 9:23) You will never understand God’s will for you until you stop making it about yourself. (Proverbs 3:5–6) God made you to love Him, serve Him, and share His gospel with everyone you meet. (Matthew 22:37–39; Matthew 28:19–20) That should be the sum of any life surrendered to Christ.

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Urgency and Mission

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A mantra is a repeated word or phrase that exemplifies your beliefs or goals. It’s a device to keep you on track and to remind yourself of what is most important. Do you have a mantra for your life? If not, how about “urgency and mission”? Mission because the Lord has entrusted you to carry on His work, to be His hands and feet in sharing the gospel to the ends of the earth. (Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 1:8) Urgency because we know the time is short. (Romans 13:11–12)

These truths should be at the forefront of the mind of every Christian and the driving force of each of our days. (Colossians 3:2) To our shame, these are not the hallmarks of most of our lives. Since they aren’t, we must ask, are we serious about our commitment to follow Jesus? (Luke 9:62)

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What Is God Calling You to Do?

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What is God calling you to do? Are you doing it? A recurring theme for most Christians is trying to figure out God’s will for their lives. We’ve talked about this before (see “Explaining God’s Will for Your Life” and “Walking in God’s Will”) and yet we never seem to get it straight in our head. God’s will is easy to find. The Lord has put it in plain sight for you to find, right in the pages of Scripture (Micah 6:8).

Sometimes I think we like to pretend it’s a mystery so we don’t have to feel obligated to carry out the work He gives us to do (James 1:22). What God is calling you to do is no doubt far less glamorous than you would prefer or imagine (Luke 9:23). But this isn’t about you, is it (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)?

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Simplify and Focus

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In my younger days, I spent a lot of time playing and recording music. When trying to create the perfect recording environment, you are always aware of and tweaking the signal-to-noise ratio. That means eliminating all the outside noise from the recording space to get the purest recording of the instruments and vocals. I’m still battling the signal-to-noise ratio every day as I aspire to live my life for Christ.

I need to simplify and focus to eliminate all distractions so I can focus only on the signal, the Holy Word of God. It is the only thing that matters. Everything else just distorts the message and distracts from the goal of walking just as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6).

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