April 23, 2023

Dear Ones,

Hope you have a blessed day.  Al will be off to the Men’s Group, and I will have donuts waiting when he comes home. We have Bible study today and we also have a retreatant coming this afternoon until Saturday. Today is supposed to be rainy but hopefully the rest of the time will be sunny and nice.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

I get excited when I read about men getting fired up for the Lord and taking their rightful place in the family. We have only to look at our society as we see so many men that have abdicated and left their families defenseless. Our son told us we just had to listen to Joby Martin online, as he has a seven-week series for men and even in his looks, Joby is a “man’s man!” He gives a powerful message that all men need to hear and should make us moms also feel grateful when dads teach their sons to stand firm, grow and act like men. I will just share a few things from my take and you can go online and listen for yourselves.

Men need to be reminded that their role is to defend, provide and protect, and be like watchmen on the wall. They are to shepherd their families and be alert to ways the enemy will try to come in and try to beat them down. I Peter 5 has much to say about resisting the enemy, and Joby bases his message on verses 6-11. He lists the things that the enemy uses to take men out, the first being pride. He mentions how it is easy for men to think too highly of themselves and that the world is all about them. Humility is so important: if you don’t humble yourself before God, you will be humbled. Jesus is Lord, not you!

Secondly, he mentions the enemy uses worry and anxiety to hinder men and cause them to delve deeper into self. Often men make an idol of work, feeling they are in control as if it all depends on them and worry results. But rather, they are to go to God and cast all their anxieties on Him.

Thirdly, the enemy uses laziness to take men out of the game. Men can be good at avoiding responsibility, get distracted and not realize they are in a war. They have a race to run, so need to throw off what ever hinders them. He encourages men to serve their wives, pray over them and lead the family.

Fourthly Joby said men use isolation and they hide. That is a dangerous place to be, as the enemy tries to get the straggler, the loner. Men need fellowship and to join groups where they can be encouraged in their life with the Lord and help lift up others as well.

The fifth and last one was lust and that is a big battlefield for men. The key word he used was flee! Don’t flirt with sin, but flee! Maybe you think you’ve got this, but you will fall. He mentions how pornography rewires a man’s brain and how his own wife will not be enough.

Men will have failures at times but it is not final, as God’s grace can restore and put you back on the wall or in the race. But that is not to say you won’t have to suffer any consequences. Pursue the Lord and get in fellowship and don’t abdicate to the enemy!! God rules and reigns!