PURSUE YOUR POTENTIAL
Manhood
Remember the definition, don’t rewrite it
Each Saturday a group of seven men, from across the United States, meet to encourage, inspire, and be lifted up by one another. We call this group our Men of HITOP Prayer Mastermind. We understand being a man of humility, integrity, truth, obedience, and prayer is essential in serving the Lord, our families, friends, and others. Recently, we discussed the topic of manhood and how a misguided definition can impair our view of success.
Before we get to the themes of biblical success for Christian men, I want to take a moment to define success, first from a secular view and then from a biblical one.
Success — A secular view
Popular culture would define success in a variety of ways, perhaps the most common like this…
Success (the opposite of failure) is the status of having achieved and accomplished an aim or objective. Being successful means the achievement of desired visions and planned goals. Furthermore, success can be a certain social status that describes a prosperous person that could also have gained fame for its favorable outcome. The dictionary describes success as the following: “attaining wealth, prosperity and/or fame”.
What stood out to you here? For me; desired vision, planned goals, social status, and gained fame. Whose vision and goals? What status and fame? I promise I am not being judgmental here, rather I am convicted that I once thought this way. I cared more about my image than living according to the image of Christ. You can say it was all about Chris, not Christ.
A skewed view of success drove me to long hours, late nights, misguided decisions, and difficulty handling perceived failure. When success is defined by one’s achievement in the obtainment of status, possessions, or even popularity we lose, even if we gain.
Success — A biblical view
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2, ESV)
To live a life of success as a Christian is to live a life for Christ, not ourselves. Hear me here, according to the Pew Research Center, in 2015, there were 2.3 billion Christians of all ages in the world. The Center for the Study of Global Christianity (CSGC) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, reported that the number of Christians in the world edged past 2.5 billion in 2019. (Source: https://www.learnreligions.com/christianity-statistics-700533)
If we take the 2.3 billion people professing to be Christian and understand 49% of them to be male, that is 1.127 billion men. What impact could 1.127 billion men, who define success and manhood as I am about to, have on this world? Well, I would say if those men lived according to Acts 11 we would experience a generation of men in church, teaching, leading, and disciplining.
and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. (Acts 11:26, ESV)
So what is stopping this from occurring with many men? Success! We’ve misunderstood the definition and therefore our role as a man.
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13, ESV)
Unity, knowledge, biblical wisdom, and maturity align us to the full measure of Christ, that is success.
So what knocks us off course? An enemy who intentionally is prowling around looking to kill your progress, steal your joy, and destroy your hope and promise in truth, the truth of Jesus Christ.
Here’s our mastermind’s view on how to obtain success as a man of Christ. Fear the Lord and keep His commandments. What? You may be thinking, I already know that. Knowing is not always doing though. I use to tell my son, especially when I coached him, “son, to know and not do is to not know.”
Want success? Read His Word and know the Lord is with you
When David became appointed as a king during the reign of Saul, Nathan the prophet said to him…
Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. (2 Samuel 7:3, ESV)
When Joseph worked for Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, and captain of the guard, the Lord was with him and made him a successful man…
The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. (Genesis 39: 2–3, ESV)
David and Joseph were not successful because of what they did, but because of who they did it for.
Want success? Fear the Lord
We are not called to be afraid of our Father in Heaven, we are called to fear Him. So what’s the difference? Fear through our absolute awe and reverence is to understand and experience God’s true character. Galatians reminds us that through His love He saved us brought us joy and peace. In patience, kindness, and goodness He forgives our past, present, and future sin. Out of His gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, He bought us, adopted us, and embraced us as His family.
While fear conjured up through deception and lies tells that God is angry, ready to punish us and treat us worse than our earthly fathers, even though Jesus shed His blood redeem all those who believe. Fear God in wisdom, not deception.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (Proverbs 9:10, ESV)
Want success? Keep His commandments
Simple, not easy. We are born broken. The Bible reminds us that the flesh (sin) desires the ways of this world. It clings to a life of…
sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. (Galatians 5:16–21, ESV)
Where to walk by the Spirit, in a manner pleasing to The Lord and bearing good fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
So…
- Pray through life, don’t power through it
- Understand that it will take more courage to face what’s inside you (fear, lies, doubt, anger, laziness, etc.) than to face any earthly challenge
- Trust the Word of God as your single source of truth.
I pray you and I never lose sight that God desires us to remember His definition of success and role as a man, not rewrite it. Read His Word, fear His faithfulness, and keep His commands this will elevate us to Pursue our Potential!
