“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ’Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence,’ The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’ Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." –Hebrews 13:5-7
“But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” –Matthew 19:26
“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” –Philippians 1:6
“My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.” – I Corinthians 4:4-5
Men, when you wake up in the morning and prepare your mindset to take on the day’s challenges and the people who will come across your path, who are you putting your confidence in? Are you putting it in your thoughts and good feelings to motivate yourself to reach your full potential? Are you the main source of finding your inner confidence or are you relying on the God of the universe for his strength and leading on your life each day to give you your confidence as he imparts his power to you as his son to accomplish his plan for your life (Philippians 1:6)? I used to wake up in the morning and read some motivational thoughts I had posted on the mirror but my question for myself looking back is, “Were you trusting and relying on your own strength or God’s supernatural strength by embracing your personal relationship with Jesus Christ?”
Too often as Christians we go through life’s motions and live “half-hearted, faith-filled” lives. We limit God’s power he wants to impart to us because we don’t activate our trust, surrender, or our faith in the area we are struggling with and don’t have the answers to. We limit ourselves! Guys, we need to get our eyes off ourselves! This day isn’t about us! It’s about being a light, shining God’s love and truth into people’s lives! Don’t let these just be meaningless, cliché words that you hear. No, activate your faith and gain your confidence to take on life’s challenges today by complete surrender and trust in him to work everything out for good. Let him use you today! You don’t have to fear men when your confidence is found solely in Christ (Hebrews 13:5-7)! Think about it, the God of the universe wants to speak his truth to others and impart his power to them through little ol’ us (Matthew 19:26)! How awesome is that? Please, don’t put God in a box and limit yourself to just your own good intentions with trying to find your inner confidence. By doing this we are relying on a weak-minded, short-sited, feeble, accident proof god, ourselves! Don’t be your own life’s god. No, instead put your complete, 100%, surrendered, passionate confidence in Christ! We are selling ourselves and God short by not doing this. He has the strength to do it so why are we not activating our faith and our confidence in him? God wants to work through your trust in him, not your unbelief!
I want to leave you with one more thought. The closer you get to Christ in your walk the more you can feel the Holy Spirit’s leading power on your life and throughout your day but Satan wants to creep in and destroy your walk by using that one little sin that you struggle with that takes you away from your strong relationship with God. We all have one and Satan knows exactly each person’s weak point to get us away from our proper walk and surrender to Christ. For many of us men it’s the sin of lust, sexual temptation, or pride. It’s like having a small sliver in our foot that unless we take care of and ask God for strength to overcome it, it can turn into an infected wound and if we ignore it, it can take over the whole leg and lead to amputation. So it is with that “little sin” in your life that nobody really sees but you know it’s there and maybe you’re in denial about it being really all that serious. Well, let’s real quick relate it to lust and pornography. Let’s say you dabble with bad thoughts or looking at pornography once in awhile. Ok, so that’s the “small sliver” in your foot. But then let’s say there comes a time later on when it starts becoming more apparent to you and others around you that your dabbling with this “small sin” has started to grow bigger to where you’re not hiding it as much anymore and maybe you’re even going to strip clubs, or watching inappropriate videos with your friends. Maybe you’ve decided to start acting out more physically in your relationship with your girl. Now, that “little sin” that started out as a “sliver” has infected the whole foot crawling up your leg. Guess what guys, it can lead to amputation and kill your “walk” with God! All because you ignored the warnings and let that small sliver manifest into so much more as it cripples you. God wants to expose that sin in our lives that is dangerous territory and can amputate our walk (I Corinthians 4:4-5). What “small sin” do you need to address today to stop the infection from growing into the other areas of your life? Think about it! I’m right there with you guys! Let’s put our complete surrender in the Lord, which gives us confidence and strength as we ask him to expose the areas of our lives that need to be completely cleaned out before it leads to our down fall as a man of God. Don’t stop fighting men! Satan has so many men lost because they look to our culture that is ok with rampant sin instead of God who wants to open our minds to the lifestyle he wants us to live.
If a sliver is left untreated it can lead to an infection of our whole body which can lead to amputation and even death. Stop living in denial. Address that “small sin” issue today and put all your confidence in Christ to live a life set apart!
No comments:
Post a Comment