Christianity Archives - Page 25 of 38

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.

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.

Temptation

He who is not tempted is of no value to the devil.

This is what I think about when people brag that temptation is seemingly non-existent in their lives. In the first place, the type of person who talks about their lack of temptation is obviously not intelligent enough to be of much use to the enemy. Not being tempted is nothing to brag about. Men think they are showcasing their “natural goodness” by way of not being tempted, but the opposite is true. The devil has no need of such weak, egotistical individuals. He already owns them.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience”.
James 1:2-3

Hypothetically, Satan has a hit-list, a hierarchy of importance on which he ranks the most valuable players in the Church and plots to destroy them. If you aren’t tempted, you aren’t on the list, if you aren’t tempted, you should be worried.

If you are tempted, it is your job to destroy that temptation.

You can redirect the temptational energy, fight the temptation with willpower, or run from the temptation. Jesus was strong enough to crush temptation face to face using scripture. Are you strong enough to do that?

If you are weaker, or are worn down from temptations already, you will need to use the escape method to remove yourself from the presence of the temptations. Use the redirect method when the temptation is so strong that it causes huge surges of energy in your system. Take that energy and turn your focus onto something productive. Build. Create. Work.

Be aware of your weaknesses. The devil and his demons are cowardly, they will never hit you where you are strongest – they will always look for the chink in the armor. Any little crevice they can worm their way into in order to destroy you. Be aware of your weaknesses, and what sins you are inclined to commit based on your personality. Awareness is key in all aspects of dealing with temptation. Be aware of yourself. Be aware of the enemy, and use temptation to strengthen yourself for the future.

Temptation is the stress that produces growth of the mind, if you allow yourself to be trained by it. The willpower muscle must be used in order for it to grow. Temptation will either crush a man or make him more powerful, and you have to decide today which one it is going to be.

Mantra

I crush the temptation before me at all times.

Application

Awareness is always the first step in solving any problem. Becoming aware of the temptation is key, then you can analyze how the temptation is attacking you and how you can most easily destroy it. Or you can decide that it is too powerful for you and you can run away.

Make no mistake, the way of escape is a useful tool, but it requires you to have humility and accept that you are not strong enough to overcome temptation and must therefore flee from it. So when you are tempted, look in the immediate environment, there is a way of escape there somewhere.

Stockpile the mind with scripture. The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit, making it both useful for defensive measures and offensive maneuvers. This was the tactic used by Christ when He was tempted in the wilderness, and undoubtedly the tactic He used all the other times He was tempted which are not recorded.

Use temptation for growth.

Every time you resist temptations, you increase your experience in dealing with temptation, making it more likely that you will be able to resist temptation in the future as long as you don’t get comfortable and lazy.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

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