It Takes God to Grow A Man

 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 1Co 16:13  

Watch Ye

Behaving like a man every day is not easy. There are days when it can feel like a cruel joke. Days when it feels like it's over. Days when the soil starts to drift back to the ocean.

 And it is exactly in such moments that the believer is called to be on guard, to watch ye.

It is an encouragement. It is an exhortation.

Watch ye. Take care. Consider.

It is not a call to overthink. Or to worry.

It is a call to cast your cares upon God.

For we cannot be a man (or woman) after God’s heart without him.

 Christ said “Without me ye can do nothing.”

And every day, every morning, and every evening we are invited to be a witness to that truth.

It may be in a faint sigh, or a joint growing stiff, or the silence darkening the room.

 But the amazing thing is that God always proves himself faithful in the end.

Always.

Watch Ye

It is a cooperation.

He gives the word and we act on it.

Watch.

Look.

Remember.

Because the devil prowls about waiting to devour.

To devour means to tear. It is a merciless attack.

And the devil is doing that every day.

He wrests, he twists, he accuses.

Resist him.

But how do we resist a spirit?

He is your enemy.

Call him out.

Remind him who you are, where you are, and how you are.

You are the son and daughter of a living God.

Rejoice always. Count it all joy, wherever, and however you are.

Resist being dragged into despair. Cast out the melancholy face. Overwhelm him with your praises for your God.

Watch Ye

Watch out for distractions.

The devil will distract you.

The world will distract you.

Your own flesh will distract you.

Be circumspect.

Because you are sanctified.

Chosen.

Set apart.

Called to be a saint.

Travel light. Take a walk in eternity.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Heb 12:1-3  

Stand fast in the faith

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 1Co 15:58  

Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Col 2:6  

If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister. Col 1:23

  

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Eph 4:14  

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. Eph 4:17  

Quit you like a man

Yes you are a man.

You are also a child of God.

A man.

But a child.

It is in that synthesis that he makes us men and women after himself.

Be strong.

Be courageous.

Be strong and of a good courage. Jos 1:6 

Only be thou strong and very courageous. Jos 1:7 

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Isa 40:29  

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isa 41:10  

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 

Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. 2Co 4:7-9 

Pain will happen. Let it not distract you.

Suffering is a must on this side of heaven.

That is not strange.

Rather rejoice.

You are not hated but loved.

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 

But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? Heb 12:5-9

Now drown that pain with praise!

Watch ye.

Stand fast.

Quit yourself like a man.

Be strong.