Lion Heart ENCOURAGE - Show yourself to be a man

Intro:

Hey man of God! Growing up, as a boy and then a young man was different for each of us. Different environments, influences and starting points. But each of us faced the same question: Are you man enough!?

In 1 Kings 2:2 David is giving his last instructions and wisdom to his son Solomon, and one part of his words are the words ‘Show yourself to be a man’.

Encouragement:

Oh boy, this question is fraught with complexities. ‘Showing yourself to be a man’, necessitates us knowing what ‘being a man’ is. And depending on those ‘starting points’ I mentioned earlier, the definition of being a man can be wildly different for different people.

However, it’s not a one size fits all scenario. There is not only one ‘cookie cutter’ mold for a ‘good man’. God has made us diverse and different, and it is good.

Today, with media being so pervasive, we are bombarded with so many ‘images’ of what constitutes a man. Most of these media images of being a man are way off base. These media images are NOT being informed by God’s design for men, they portray manhood very incorrectly. You don’t have to behave like a Jason Bourne to be a man, you don’t look like a Brad Pitt to be a man. And being a man is definitely not these sex craved single minded idiots playing in most of the sitcoms today!

There are many shapes and size and shades of men. But they are all men. To be a man after God’s heart, what does that take? What does that look like? Even though you are very different from the man next door, being the man who God made you to be still requires you to be a certain way. It requires you behave and respond in a certain way. It requires you to walk in God’s ways!

So it’s the walking of the man that makes him a man. Not the look and feel of a man that makes him a man. You might look and sound like Brad but not walk in the ways of God, not be a man after God’s own heart. Or you might look and feel like a Gideon hiding a wine press, and God can call you and you become that man of God that he has purposed.

So, what are the ways of a Godly man?

This answer is broad and deep, and we will not answer it nearly completely today, but I will include smaller segments into the ENCOURAGE podcast to slowly show what the ways of a Godly man look like, but we will touch on our first installment today.

Being man enough: I believe that this is a question that is still being answered in each of us today. Our journey to ‘being a man’, to ‘being man enough’ is not done. It’s not over. We still have ground to cover, and still have a ways to go. Keep moving forward is my encouragement to you today! Let’s look less at the worldly examples of manhood, and look more into the ways of the Godly men of the bible.

There are so many examples of good men in the Bible, and there are also many many scriptures that help us understand what a man is. But for today, we’re going to look at:

1 Cor 16:13-14 ESV .”Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Do everything in love.”

The Amplified really just adds this detail we need to understand this scripture better:

1 Cor 16:13-14 AMP:  Be on guard; stand firm in your faith [in God, respecting His precepts and keeping your doctrine sound]. Act like [mature] men and be courageous; be strong. Let everything you do be done in love [motivated and inspired by God’s love for us].

To me the key to this scripture is the last phrase: ‘Inspired by God’s love for us’. So we can see from this scripture that being a man, starts by knowing God’s love for us.

This is pivotal. This is a key ingredient to being a Man of God. Knowing God’s love.

This changes us from the inside out, and it also shows us who we are in God’s eyes.  Knowing who we are in God’s eyes is a crucial catalyst to change. Internal change. Everything starts and ends with knowing and loving God. (We will delve into this journey more later)

Once we have some of this ‘love insight’, we can then step into more practice aspects of walking as a man of God. ‘Be on your Guard’, ‘Stand firm in Faith’, ‘Act like men’, and lastly’ be Courageous’.

These are very practical and decisive attributes and actions that we have to apply in our lives. They don’t come naturally. We have to decidedly act in this manner. But very importantly, if these actions aren’t inspired by knowing God’s love for us, they quickly become very shallow and cold. And often can bring harm and not good.

Let take a moment to dive into what each of these attributes mean, and how we can apply it in everyday life.

Be on your Guard:

To watch/to be awake/be vigilant. This indicates that there are dangers to be aware of. And indeed there are, but they are not as obvious as a typical ‘enemy’ would be. They don’t present themselves at your front door covered with danger signs and carrying weapons of war. No, they are hidden, they are more like trojan horses entering your ‘castle’ through the internet connected screens in your home. But as men and fathers, it is our duty to be the gate keepers of our homes.

Stand firm in Faith:

Standing firm, once again, indicates that there are things to stand firm against. And ‘in faith’ indicates that there are pressures/lies coming against your faith. Where this starts though, is to actually have faith. To have something to stand for.

To have faith, or to develop faith, in short comes from knowing God, knowing His characteristics, and in some cases it means knowing His specific will. And thus we see that there are attacks against our knowledge of who God is, and our understanding of His characteristics and nature. The enemy wants to attack how you see God, as he knows that this is crucial to how you will live in this world. If he can corrupt our faith, he knows that we will be less effective in this world, and possibly even corrupt our very faith.

Be courageous:

Four times in the Old Testament God commands Joshua to be Strong and Courageous. And here in Corinthians God is giving that commandment straight to us! From the Greek wording we see that there is also an element of ‘growing stronger’. Specifically, to become stronger in spirit. So God is also instructing us to do things that will strengthen us as Godly men and as faith warriors for our families.

Act like men:

I have specifically left this one for last as this is too broader a subject to address in just a paragraph or two. I’m going leave this section open as an on-going segment in our ENCOURAGE podcast. So please tune in next time as we explore what it means to be a Godly man.

Prayer Request:

Please pray for us as we are hunting for a new venue for our Lion Heart EXCITE events. Pray that God would guide us to a good place, and open the door for us there.

Journey Groups:

This month’s Journey Group is on this coming Sat morning the 8th of Feb 2025. Upper Level of Cappuccinos, in Woodlands Mall, Pretoria East. Please reach out to me if you need more info: info@hopenation.faith

Please fwd this message to those who you think can benefit!

Your Brother in Christ,

Stanley 

(100% human generated content) 😊