Author

Prayer

It is a disgrace to only go to God when we have exhausted all other options. “All I can do now is pray”, they say. Well you should have been praying all along! Prayer should be the first option, not the last resort.

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Mark 11:24

“Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil. Do not be rash with your mouth, And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.”
Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

We are permitted to speak to the Creator of the universe. We can open our mouths and utter words to God Himself. This is a tremendous privilege. What do we do with it?

The plague of beta-males in the Church have diluted prayer.

You walk into Church and what do you hear in prayer?

“Oh Lord God Jesus we just thank you just thank and thank just you are so wonderful just guide us and fill us just help us and just challenge us” et cetera, et cetera.

Bosh and twaddle. Senselessness. This type of prayer is a disgrace. Prayer is not a chick flick for your emotions. If you are going to get emotional in prayer, do so at home. Only at that point can you suggest that those emotions are legitimate and not meant for show.

Don’t be the emotional beta.

Do not conflate your emotions with spirituality, the two are not the same.

Are you praying each day? Probably not. You probably come crawling up to God only when you have fallen into abject darkness. You speak to Him when you are in need, and forget Him when you need nothing. This is the most shameful form of prayer.

It is a disgrace to only go to God when we have exhausted all other options. “All I can do now is pray”, they say. Well you should have been praying all along! Prayer should be the first option, not the last resort. We should be ashamed of ourselves if we do this. Prayer is a tool that we should take advantage of always.

Speak to the Lord daily as Daniel did. Praying three times per day and continuing to do so even when praying would cause his life to be in danger.

Mantra

Pray instead of a Mantra.

Application

Prayer should be a keystone habit for Christian people. Daniel prayed three times per day, same time, same place, out of discipline. Were there times he probably did not feel like praying? Sure. It is human nature to not always want to do things, but Daniel prayed nonetheless. And so dedicated was he that those who plotted to bring him down knew exactly how they could trap him. They knew he was fully committed and faithful in prayer. Daniel’s enemies knew that the only way to trap him was to use his God.

Jesus gave the model prayer to us to use it, not just so we could look at it. Use the model prayer if you cannot make your own. Use that prayer until you have developed the habit of praying every day. One small prayer every day, that is where you start. That is how you become a Man.

Conduct Yourselves like Men.

Failure

Failure is a surefire way to generate growth both of character and skill.

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Psalm 73:26

At some point you come face to face with failure. Whether it manifests as a character flaw that affects your work or a sin does not matter. As a man, failing is difficult because of the massive egos we usually carry around. But failing is inevitable.

We should not be discouraged by failing, instead it should excite us. Because within that failure are the exact coordinates for where we need to go in order to improve. Failure is a performance evaluation for our character that lets us know precisely where we are insufficient. Failure points its bony fingers in the direction of improvement. Our failures show us that our study strategies or work ethic need improvement. Sexual failings tells us that our self-control needs refinement.

The weak men are discouraged. Boys wallow in their weakness and flaws like liberals. Weak men ignore their flaws and pretend they don’t exist like conservatives. Both cases are the result of a lack of masculinity.

Masculinity takes ownership of that failure. It claims every ounce of failure as its own. Masculinity takes full responsibility for the insufficiency it possesses. Ignore the weak, frail ego that pervades the Church and take ownership of your life. Have some ownership for your failures, and use them as a tool to improve.

No growth is possible without failure.

When I fail, I only grow.

Application

Don’t be discouraged by failing, instead use it. The best thing about failing is it gives you the blueprint for improvement. Failure is part of the recipe for success. All you have to do is avoid the ego trauma of the weak beta male, and turn that weakness and failure into strength and success.

To properly use failure, you first have to set clear parameters for both success and failure. You must clearly define the standards of success. Only by doing this will you know when you have failed.

Without standards, we have no way to evaluate our performance. When we cannot evaluate our performance, we cannot know when we have failed. If we cannot know when we fail, we will not know when we need to improve. When we don’t know if we need to improve, we will remain stagnant.

Accept the reality that you are insufficient in many areas.

This can be done by writing down who you want to be and comparing it to who you are now. Doing this shows us that we have much work to do. But it also shows us a path to success. A man must first decide who he wants to be before he can begin working on becoming that ideal. “Those in athletic pursuit first chose the sport they want, and then do the work” ~ Epictetus. (Read it for Free here)

Be willing to fail. Do not let fear of failing prevent you from taking action. Failure is a surefire path to growth and learning. And it comes at a fraction of the cost of a modern college education. Endure the pain of change.

The next time you fail, try to rush to being thankful for it. You just learned a lesson you will never forget. That alone makes failure a better teacher than any egg-head in a classroom.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Dedication

Dedication is the only path to lasting growth. And dedication is the only way to continue to improve.

“Dedication is the only way to lasting growth.”

“Blessed is the man, Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night”
Psalm 1:1-2

Have you quit reading yet? You’ve likely allowed yourself to slip in your discipline. A whole month in and the habit starts to grind on you. It is no longer a fun self-improvement tool, now it’s a chore. It is no longer a way to grow and get better continually, it is something that is annoying. You are tired of growing and progressing. Or maybe you aren’t.

Dedication is the only path to lasting growth. Being dedicated when heaven doesn’t even seem worth it. And dedication is the only way to continue to improve. Even the peace and glory of heaven is not enough to keep us motivated. Because of this, you must conjure the power from within yourself to remain dedicated when you would want nothing more than to quit. With all the pleasures in life, why would you deprive yourself of them for some goal you don’t even want?

The dedicated soul must embrace the fact that his motivation will die many times over. His dedication will be the only thing that keeps him alive and pushing.

Men are dedicated. Boys are carried about by emotion. Men act regardless of how they feel. Boys depend on their motivation.

Mantra

Dedicate every day to progress.

Application

Override the voice in your head that tells you that you aren’t feeling like doing what is right today. Shut it down. Immediately turn your thoughts to something else, it does not matter what.

I don’t feel like writing this passage today, yet here I am. How you feel is irrelevant, your action is all that matters.

Get up. Get moving. Crush goals and improve. Because if you can improve and grow on days when you don’t feel like it, imagine the limitless power of growth you will have when you do feel like working. Be Dedicated. Reject Emotionalism. Take Action.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Burnout

Feeling burnout with the gospel?

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
Galatians 6:9

Have you become weary with the commands of God? Are you worn out with everything He asks of His servants? Do you feel tired of going to church week after week after week. If you are, do not worry, it is normal, It is going to happen. The weight of the law begins to take its toll on your mind.

You don’t bear the gospel the way the weak emotional liberals bear it, or the way the radical dogmatic conservatives bear it. You bear it in truth, trying to examine the law with your own mind and make your own decisions about what it says and what it means. For this reason many people degenerate into emotional liberalism or dogmatic conservatism because it is so difficult to think for yourself and to decide about faith for yourself. To continue trying to “work out your own salvation” (Phil 2:12) will eventually cause you to burnout.

Burnout isn’t a problem, it’s part of the process of growth.

You aren’t having your spiritual growth handed to you, instead you are working for it. You aren’t being spoon fed the gospel like a fat baby, you are digging into it using your rational mind, and it is difficult. The work is overbearing. The effort is titanic. Yet you must do it.

To degenerate into emotionalistic liberalism is not the way of men.

To degenerate into dogmatic conservatism is not the way of men.

Both of these doctrines minimize the use of the rational mind. One points to your emotions to justify what you think, the other looks to tradition to justify actions that may or may not be Biblical. Use your own mind like a man. Overcome burnout with dignity. Burnout will pass away with time and give way to new growth. It is like a forest that catches fire – it burns, then it grows back on the rick soil made from the ashes of the past.

Mantra

This weariness is only for a short time.

Application

Unfortunately, overcoming the burnout seems to be one of those situations that requires you to just wait out the sorrow; the same applies to depression. That doesn’t mean you stand around doing nothing – you have to constantly add new knowledge, skills and strength every day. When you add new knowledge and wait out the siege of the burnout, you can overcome and move on. And when the burnout comes back again, repeat the process. Your goal is to endure the temporary state of being burned out and shorten that period of time by adding new knowledge.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Watch this video Series on Burnout.

Obedience

“Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.”
Romans 1:5

“If you love me, keep my commands.”
John 14:15

How you emotionally feel about any of the commands of God is irrelevant. You may not agree with them. You may not want to do them, or you may even hate them at times. However, none of your thoughts matter. The only thing that matters is whether or not you obey through action. All that matters is whether or not you do what you know you must do.

The discipline to follow through with the commands of God is key. The ability to do what God says when we do not want to is a fundamental principle of Spartan Christianity.

Saving yourself for marriage is not fun.

No one who has undertaken that goal has enjoyed it. It is not meant to be enjoyed, that command exists for a purpose. Avoiding drugs and alcohol is not fun. These mind altering chemicals seem like they would be medicine to treat the misery of life. Alcohol could take you away from the pain, drugs could give you the best high of your life, but we cannot use them because we would be unable to be vigilant of the enemy. The command of sobriety is difficult. Few who keep that command enjoy it.

Obedience is a verb.

No one cares how you feel about it. As a man, you aren’t called to feel anything, you are only expected to act. You are only required to take action. You are not required to feel happy about it. Many of the commands are heavy and difficult, and feeling happy about them is something that will never happen. What you can guarantee is that day after day after day you will be grinding away at the discipline of obedience through action.

Mantra

Feeling is irrelevant, only obedience matters.

Application

Simple, do what God commands without getting caught up in how you feel about it. Sideline those emotions. Shut down those thoughts. Put ‘feelings’ in the trash can and focus solely on the action of obedience. You can feel any way you want, what matters is your obedience.

Conduct Yourselves like Men.

Page 70 of 86

« Previous 1 … 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 … 86 Next »