Do you discipline yourself on how you talk to people?

Disciplining yourself in what you say can sometimes be very hard depending on who you're talking to or what kind of interaction you've had with that person. But this week we want to talk about our self-disciplines. So from Luke chapter 6 verse 45, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart, for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

If we want good things to flow from our mouths and into the lives of those around us, we need to spend the time it takes to fill our hearts with good things and empty them of evil. When we confess our sins to God, we empty our hearts to him.

This is a good practice to go through daily with God. Ask him to reveal any evil in you and confess it to him, and ask him to replace the evil with his good. Our hearts must be constantly filled with Christ so we can speak good things to our family and friends. Daily scripture reading helps us to fill our hearts and minds with his word and good thing. Sometimes we have to remember if we're always speaking negative or always saying bad things, it's things that could be coming from our heart. And I'm sure a lot of us don't want to be doing that each and every day. So if you find yourself speaking negative, speaking harshly, or bad things all the time, take time to confess those things to God. Spend some quiet time with him and he will take that from you. But you've got to fill yourself with the good. You have to fill yourself with some scripture or prayer or asking God to help you change your ways, your thinking. It may take time, but it'll happen.

So I want to finish out a prayer for us. God, I confess to you the evil I have harbored in my heart, and I ask that you fill my heart with you so I may speak right and good words to my loved ones. Help me to get rid of any of the negativity or evil that may be around or in my mind. Allow me to speak the good words that you have given us so I can glorify you and share the good with others around. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

When you're going through a rough season or a situation you're unsure to how to handle, you always want shelter and strength. So from Psalm chapter 46 verse 1 through 3, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help and trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.”

All around us the world seems to be falling apart. We see it day in and day out, watching the news, we can feel overwhelmed by the number of heartbreaking things happening around the world. Even closer to home there is pain, families in distress, financial burdens, the death of loved ones, and the list goes on and on.

The psalmist wasn't writing this psalm in blissful ignorance. He knew the world is full of sorrow, but he held strong to the promise that he had seen that God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help. In our situation, God is there. He wants to help and will help no matter what is happening in or to us. He is our shelter. As the storms rage around us and even on us, he is still there sheltering us. What a great reassurance to know that God is always sheltering and protecting us, no matter the situation or the difficulty that you're going through. It may not seem it at the time, but he's there. Even in this moment, I thank God for the shelter and strength that he gave while I was going through situations with my job. The stress, the worries and anxieties I was dealing with day in and day out, God helped me get through it. He gave me the courage. He gave me the wisdom and he gave me the strength, but he also sheltered me. He gave me protection. It's in that I was able to get through those hard times.

Let me finish out with a prayer for all of us. God, I need your shelter and strength. The pressures of today seem to overwhelm my hope. Reveal your strength and may my hope not fade even as the world roars around me. In your precious name we pray. Amen.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday and was able to take time and give thanks to their family and friends and even to family members that we may have lost. But always remember to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for everything that He provides for us. So from Colossians chapter 3 verse 17, “Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

Sometimes the point of Christianity gets relegated to going to church, saying a prayer before a meal, and maybe reading the Bible from time to time. Those are all great and should be elements of one's faith. But according to the verse above, our whole selves are to reflect a picture of what Jesus is actually like. And everything we do and say should lead toward gratitude.

This seems like an impossible task. But there's actually a science to this. As humans practice being thankful in their mind and in their speech, it actually rewires pathways in our brain in a way that trains them to live their whole lives through a lens of gratitude. Consider keeping a journal of thankfulness or verbally practicing gratitude one or two times per day with the people in your life and see if it changes anything within you. You may be the person in their lives who can be the best picture of Jesus for them. Don't take that lightly. Always give thanks to everyone around you, no matter what the circumstance, but also give thanks to your heavenly Father.

So let me finish out with a prayer for us. God, train my thoughts and speech to be grateful so I reflect the heart and character of Jesus. Always allow me to be thankful and grateful for all that you provided for me. Father, you are the one true merciful God. I praise these things in all of your name, in Jesus' name. Amen.

You are part of God's family regardless of what you have done!

Do you ever wonder if in all your brokenness and all the things you've done, if you're part of God's family? Well, I say to you, welcome to the family. From Mark chapter 3 verse 35, “Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Now every family has issues, including Jesus. Ponder that for a moment, and maybe even quietly enjoy the deep encouragement that this simple thought from scripture gives us. Jesus, the son of God, had a dysfunctional family. Not everything was Instagram perfect. Jesus had been busy in his ministry, training his disciples, teaching about his kingdom, and healing the sick. Crowds were following him, and everyone was excited. Well, everyone except for Jesus's own family. Their response was pretty shocking. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, he is out of his mind. That's from Mark chapter 3 verse 21. After the dust had settled, Jesus explained to his followers that in his movement, his emerging kingdom community, family, and belonging were being redefined.

To be in Jesus's family, the priority must be to discover and do the will of God. As men and women, it's critical that we remember how family works in the kingdom. We need to ensure we're helping the people in our lives to first discover and second to do the will of God. Sometimes this might mean setting our plans, our leadership, and our understanding out of the way. So what comfort it brings that no matter what you've done, no matter what you're going through, you are part of Jesus's family. Nobody's perfect. Everybody has mistakes. But the great thing is we serve a perfect God.

So let me finish out for us with a prayer. Lord, thank you for my friends and family. They are a gift and I want to honor that. Help me as a man or woman to passionately pursue your will and give me the courage to help others to do the same. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

This week we're talking about the Word of God and how it means to you in your daily lives. From 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

There aren't many men who feel adequately equipped for their calling. We are growing, we are learning, and we are being transformed. But truthfully, we still feel the weight of life as a man, and it is heavy. It's a serious business. In the middle of all the challenges, the ongoing transformation, the chaos of relationships, and the growing pains of life, Paul reminds young Timothy of two things that never change, God's Word and his gift of salvation through Christ Jesus. Whatever your journey is throwing at you, learn to hold on tight to these two immovable objects.

Allow God's Word to be your daily guide. Let it shape you and strengthen you for your calling to manhood. Hold fast to the amazing gift of your salvation. You are no longer your own, but your life is hidden with Christ. You are secure in Him. No matter what comes your way today or tomorrow, choose to listen to His Word and cling to the one who is holding tight to you. God's Word is the living Word, and any situation you're going to, He has the answer for you.

So let me finish out with a simple prayer for us. God, let your Holy Word guide my day. Equip me to be great, godly man because of Christ Jesus. In your precious name we pray, Amen.

Oftentimes in our day to day lives and what we deal with, we often hear people say, I need more. And sometimes you need more. So this week we want to cover Ephesians chapter 1:7. “He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his son and forgave our sins.”

I think every man wishes he had more to give more money, more time, more talent, more heart, and more energy. We're all giving all we have, but the issue is capacity. There are limits to our output. What if there was another source to tap into a limitless reservoir that could provide all we need for our calling as men.

Ephesians one seven gives us a beautiful picture of God's capacity. He is so rich. He is rich in kindness and rich in grace. He has so much kindness and so much grace that he was able to purchase our forgiveness and redemption from the slave market of sin. This verse also gives us an idea of the depths of resources available to us. We might have a limit to our kindness and very real limit to our grace, but our heavenly father has an abundance and he is clearly willing to share it with us. God wants to give us more grace, more patience, more energy, more of everything we need. And though times you feel like you're at capacity and you can't just, you can't give no more. I know I struggle with that at times. I'm sure you do too, but God's got an abundance, a limitless amount of grace and mercy for all of us. And we can just take a moment to tap into that and know that he has so much love for us. That'll help us continue to meet the needs of those around us.

So let me finish. God, when I run out of capacity, when my ability to show kindness and grace to my friends and family is extended to the limit, help me to tap into your great big heart and abundant resources. Help me to be the person you created me to be and doing the works that you wanted me to do. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Everyone wants to feel safe and secure, but do you know that God will always keep you safe and secure? From Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 and 14, “When you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people.”

Often in our journey as men and women, we get a little lost. Those crazy moments when you're sure it was supposed to be left, left, then right, yet we find ourselves at a dead end. We also get lost in ourselves. We lose our sense of identity. We are so busy driving around, working, shopping, and investing in friendships. Along the way, we forget that we have a greater identity. Before we are man or woman, a friend or an employee, before we belong to the system, the rat race, or the coaching team, we belong to God.

We might feel lost, but we are not lost. He has placed inside of us a gift of security. His Holy Spirit has found His way into our heart and has taken up permanent residence. His job is to transform us, to equip us, and unleash us, and to also just to remind us. The Apostle Paul tells us that the Spirit is God's guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised. In simple terms, the Spirit is the down payment that secures us into the contract. We might lose our way and our sense of who we are along the way, but we cannot lose our place among the purchased people of God. We belong to Him. Even in your difficult times, God has you in His hand, and He will always work to keep you safe and secure.

So I'm going to finish out for a prayer. God, let your Spirit speak into my spirit today. Remind me of your place in my heart. Awaken my soul to your Holy Spirit and call me back to Jesus again. Father, I know you'll keep me safe and you'll guide my way. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

So this week we're talking about living by faith from Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”

What is faith and why is living by faith so difficult? Here we see that the requirements of true faith are contrary to the life in our world. Faith is not blind. Faith is based on real evidence that most people reject without testing, evidence that Jesus resurrected from the dead and that there is a real God who exists, created everything, and has demonstrated love to us.

Faith taps into God's story, which is more real than the story of our natural world. God's story starts, in the beginning God, and ends with Jesus saying, I am coming quickly, and it is written in four acts. The first act is God creation where everything was good. The second act was the fall to sin and the sentence of hard work, sorrow, and death. The third act began immediately after the fall in the garden as God unfolded His plan to redeem the people He created from their sin. And the final act, pictured in Revelation, includes God recreating a new heaven and earth with restoring all. To believe in God is to live in His story where He rewards those who seek Him. Living by faith is the only way we can please God. Your Bible is a living word of the living God. No matter how many times you read it, no matter how many times you go back to it, it is the living word and those words will help change your life.

So let me finish with a prayer. God, thank you for your story. Life can wear me down and sometimes it seems like I'm stuck in the second act, hard work, sorrow, and death. So many of us are stuck there. But Lord, remind me that your story is at work. By your help, I will live in by faith in you and your story today and always. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

So this week we're talking about the armor and strength of God. From Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 and 11, “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”

At some point we discover that life is more like a battleground than a playground. We encounter tests and tough times and may even feel like we're under attack. As Paul wrote the words above, he was in prison in Rome and felt discouraged and isolated. He knew men needed to gain strength from the Lord. Battle time living forces us to be alert, strategic, and focused. We understand there are false ideas in our cultures that attack our values. We look within and know our old nature can rise up and resist the things of God. The Bible also reveals there is a devil with schemes against men who follow God.

But God does not leave us defenseless in this battle. God gives us armor to wear, weapons of truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and God's word. Martin Luther wrote, “A mighty fortress is our God,} including the words, “although this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God has willed his truth to triumph through us.” God has plans for your success. In Christ you have a champion, the Lord mighty in battle. What a great message for you today and for the week to know that you have the armor and strength of God watching over and protecting you in everything that you do in your day to day battles.

Let me finish out with a prayer. Lord, mighty in battle, show your strength in my life today. Protect those I love. Show me how to stand in your strength. Thank you that the enemies around me are no match for you, my savior. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

This week we're talking about the Lord's Prayer. From Matthew chapter 6 verse 11 through 13, “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”

Jesus taught his followers to pray for what is already on his Father's heart. When we pray this, we are agreeing with God who wants his name kept holy, his kingdom to be established, and his will to be done on earth just like it is done in heaven. Prayer is an attitude of the heart that humbles itself before God and cries out, I need you.

Jesus tells us to pray for ourselves in three areas which is what God wants for us. First, we ask our Father to give us what we need, because he is a generous giver and delights in giving his children good gifts. As we inventory all we have, we recognize that everything has come from him. Second, we ask our Father to forgive us, because he knows there are thoughts we've had, words we've said, unkind things we've done, and love we've withheld. He's a gracious forgiver. He wants us to confess them and be restored with him. And third, we ask our Father to deliver us from temptation, because he knows what we face each day. He's a mighty deliverer who will always rescue us when we ask. And just remember, God is such a good Father to all of us.

So I want to finish out a prayer for us. Lord, you are a good Father. Thank you for your thoughts about me and that you know what I need. Thank you for inviting me to come before you and pray with confidence for these things. As I come to you, you transform me and allow me to trust you more. I give you all the glory and the praise. In Jesus name we pray, Amen