Submit to Find Peace

“Submit to God, and you will have peace; then things will go well for you. Listen to his instructions, and store them in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored— so clean up your life.” –Job 22:21-23

One of the toughest challenges we face as men is with our pride and ego and submitting them to people in authority.  I remember growing up, many times I would buck my father’s authority thinking I knew best and disrespectfully fighting to get the last word in the disagreement. Young man, if you find yourself making this same mistake with your dad, just stop. Submit to his authority and remember that you’re under HIS roof. A general rule of thumb is if you’re under your parents’ roof, it’s their rules. You only have to live under their watchful eye a few years then after that you have every right to make your own decisions. If you have constant tension in your house because of this, just drop your pride and your demanding to be right. Try to understand that your parents have been there and done that. Stop and take a word of advice. We can learn so much from the people who have gone before us and learn from their mistakes so we don’t have to repeat them and mess up our lives. If I can encourage you in any way I would tell you to please ask Christian people who are older than you who you respect for advice on life. Pick their brain to learn how to avoid the mistakes that they made along with how to make the positive choices that helped improve their life. Then, most importantly, see if the advice they give you aligns with obedience to God. Also, if you’re seeking to be wise, read the Proverbs daily. It’s filled with great advice.

The passage above tells us that if we will submit to God’s leading, we will find peace and that will lead to finding good things in our life. This also relates to submitting to your parents, your teachers, and your bosses’ authority. Simplify your life by just humbling yourself and listening more. God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. If you listen, you will save yourself a great deal of heartache and trauma. I implore you to please learn from my mistakes I made by not listening and disrespecting my father’s words of advice. I understand that many young men are trying to find their footing, their place, and their voice in this world and it’s a very challenging time but it would be in their best interest to listen more and talk less especially when communicating with an adult. You will only be helping yourself. Ask God for his proper view on the advice you receive to form the right stance to form your opinion. No person regardless of age is always right. You need wisdom to discern their words but still remain respectful even if you don’t agree with their viewpoints. Bite the bullet and still submit to their authority.

If you’ve found yourself going down this path of disrespect and tension with an authority figure in your life then it’s time to ask God for forgiveness and wisdom on how to change your approach. God put those people in your life for a reason and your job is to learn what God has for you to learn through them. The way you treat people in authority in your life can be a direct correlation to how you view and obey God as an authority figure. The Bible says that if you will return to God and his authority you will be restored and have peace. Young man, this is your opportunity to clean up your life and get back on track. Humble yourself today and take some advice to enhance these opportunities in your life. At the end of the day having peace is one of the most important gifts we can receive in this life and having peace of mind will help you to be a better leader as well as a man of God. Practicing this kind of humility will enhance what God wants to do in your life as you learn to be molded to help you grow into a better man.

 If your life needs peace start submitting to God’s authority and listening to get back on the right track.

Extra Grace Required

“If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” –Romans 12:18-19

"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” –Matthew 5:44

“Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” –Proverbs 16:32

We’ve all had that one person in our life that we need a little extra strength not to knock them through a wall or push them off a cliff, right? Maybe it’s a brother or sister, an ex, or a co-worker at work who just says the wrong thing at the wrong time and gets under your skin a little easier than anybody else. You know that person who causes you to have to leave the room and take several deep breaths before you unleash fiery venom of nastiness at them. Yeah, we all have a person come to mind when we read this. God knows I’ve had certain people in my life that have required an extra measure of grace.

I remember a kid when I was in high school who was just the most annoying person I’ve ever met who would poke at me all day when I was trying to study just trying to get a rise out of me so I’d want to beat the tar out of him. I wasn’t the only one who he’d do this too either. Many times a day this kid would take a beating from people for doing the same thing to them. It was definitely a big cry for attention, that’s for sure! So how can we handle this kind of person in our everyday lives so we don’t lose our cool and ruin our testimony? Well the truth is we can learn a great deal about ourselves when we’re pressed by these kinds of people. God is very possibly teaching us patience to react out of a spirit of kindness instead of vindictiveness. Believe it or not these kinds of people who require a lot more grace are actually helping us become more Christ-like in our walk as Christian men.

It’s easy to love the people who are nice to us but it requires a whole lot more from us to love the unlovely people who are unpleasant and mean-spirited to us. God has commanded us though to show his love to these people and “kill them with kindness” in order to reach them. Many times these people can be won over by our kindness while there are some people who may never change but the only thing we can do is control how we react to them. We are responsible for own actions, not theirs. Have you ever seen a football player get tripped or their jersey grabbed by an opposing player so the player who had it done to them gets up and pushes the offender only to have the referee throw the penalty flag at the second offence costing his team 15 yards because he didn’t see the first penalty? A general rule of thumb is that the reaction to an offence will be what gets caught. Men, learn to keep your reaction in check and don’t lose your cool. You’re the one who loses if you don’t react in the correct way. God is using the difficult people in your life to teach you more about yourself. You can’t escape it, these people are out there. You must learn to go through life to be stretched so you can learn better self-control. You don’t grow in your walk as a Christian man if everything is easy and you only love the people who are good to you. Embrace the challenge and love the unlovely people around you. Don’t go into shut down mode with these people and hide. Instead, ask God for strength to keep your cool and to practice good self-control. This is manly behavior. Anybody can react negatively but a real man responds well.

The hard to love people around us can be as unpleasant as a rock in our shoe but God asks us to embrace the challenge and step forward anyways to show them love.

The Day of Reckoning

“Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong. For like grass, they soon fade away.

Like spring flowers, they soon wither.” –Psalms 37:1-2

The verses above are so great because it reassures us as men that following Christ is indeed the right approach to life. If you’re anything like me, sometimes you have to find out the hard way to realize the world has nothing to offer you and that God’s way is best! We don’t have to worry about what the wicked are doing, men. We are called to be set apart and stay on the path that God has called us to do living a life of obedience. This passage tells us that eventually the wicked around us who look like they’re living it up will eventually have their day of reckoning.

Do you ever ask yourself why certain evil-spirited people have so much success or the people who misuse others always seem to get their own way? How about the person who gets away with cheating on a test when you had to study your behind off to get the grade or the person who gets away with murder or stealing and never gets caught? Well, the Bible says that we don’t have to worry about it. God is the Judge and Jury and he sees all. He can deal far more severely than we ever could. Leave it to God. He knows what he will allow and what he won’t. Everyone will have to answer for their actions!

This passage tells us we don’t have to envy those who are caught up in the worldly lifestyle. God has made us to do more and be more in our walk with him. He wants us to take the high road and trust him. We must keep our eyes off those around us who seem to be getting away with living a “free flowing lifestyle.” Remember, sin is fun for awhile but it ends eventually and brings a great deal of hurt, sorrow, and pain with it. Men, don’t evaluate yourself to the men and standard of this world. Compare yourself to Christ and what he asks of you. He won’t let you down. Your reward is coming either this side of heaven or beyond where you will live forever.

The day of reckoning is coming. Whose example are you following?

Leading with Humility

“Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” –Proverbs 16:18

 The sign of a good leader is one that can take constructive criticism from the people around him while being able to bring each individual’s strengths to the forefront to improve the whole group or team. Each person brings some talent to the entire group and a good leader will see it and take advantage of it to bring success to all in the group. This may mean that the leader may have to swallow his pride and see what he can learn from those around him as he leads. Effective leadership will get the best out of each individual and allow them to use their unique shape and strengths to maximize their efforts. Every person has unique skills to help drive the success of a team. Just like a car not everybody on your team is designed to be the steering wheel. Some people are designed to be the cruise control, the power window, or the break. Don't stunt the growth of your team members or micro manage them. It holds them back from their full potential. At the same time you have to set proper boundaries as you manage and stay on top of the unique dynamics of your team.

We as men have some serious pride, ego, and most likely some stubbornness. It would be wise to realize though that we never stop learning and that means that sometimes we have to be a sponge and soak up life lessons and learn from the people around us to better ourselves. We should never feel like we’ve “arrived.” A fall is coming when we start believing this lie. The Bible predicts it. Leave your pride at the door and practice humility. It’s such an attractive trait to have in your life. There’s always room to grow and improve in your life. Stay humble men.

Men, if you want to be an effective leader in your life then show love to the people that may be looking to you for guidance. Help bring them along to grow as a person by showing care, love, and compassion while keeping their best interest in mind. The mark of a great coach is how much he can get out of each individual player to help benefit the team. The mark of a good teammate is how much better he makes the guy next to him play. This is what made Michael Jordan so good back in the day. He made his teammates better around him. This goes the same for you as a leader in your everyday life. Lift up your head and encourage that person around you that needs a helping hand. Get your eyes off yourself if that's all you’re focused on. Who right now do you need to call or text to encourage? Maybe it’s the guy at work struggling to keep up with the workload, or a freshman struggling to learn the playbook on the field, or a classmate struggling with his math homework. Start today helping someone as you develop effective leadership skills and do it with humility. Your giving back will be rewarded and it’ll make you feel good too.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Who do you need to help strengthen?