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Happy New Year Valiant Men of God. I trust that this past holiday season was as precious to you as it was to me. I'm excited to see what God has in store for us. As you may have already noticed, each of the previous Nuggets have been given titles to help us review when we are need, or to help point another brother to a particular area that would minister to him.
So now that the year has started, I would be negligent in my duties if I didn't ask the following "accountability" questions:
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How are you doing on your Valiant Man Journey?
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Are your eyes focused on your wife or do they wonder with each passing of another woman?
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If you are single, are you treating the women in your life with respect and dignity they deserve?
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How is your internet activity? Would you be willing to give a list of every site you visited to your Pastor for review?
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How much time have you been spending with God?
These should be pretty fair questions and to tell you the truth, I for one, am far from being perfect. But I will say that being diligent with this ministry has made my journey easier, more fruitful, and fortifying ... that is I am able to battle temptation at a much higher level. Take a moment and listen to this passage from Psalm 1:
There are two words in that passage that we will be focusing on so that we will be in abundance of this year and every year thereafter: "Blessed" and "Prosper." If I could make these words pop off the page and into your heart, I would. However, there is one way this can happen and you just heard it: "But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night." It is God's law that we are to be BLESSED. It is also God's law that we are to be PROSPEROUS. Psalm's 1:1-3 is a foundational scripture from which we, as Valiant Men, should meditate upon day and night.
Ok, so meditate might not be in your vocabulary. Then let's think of it this way: If your heart was nothing more than a hardened chuck of meat that needed to be served out for all to enjoy, how would you go about tenderizing it? For me, I'd toss it into a bag of marinade until it was time to put on the grill. Stay with me, I haven't totally lost it over the holiday. Replace the word "meditate" with "marinade" and we'll ask ourselves another question: "What have we been marinating our hearts in lately?" Think about that for a moment. "What have I been marinating my heart in lately?"
We know that by hearing the Word of God and practicing His laws will soften even the hardest of hearts. If you didn't know that, just look back where we all started at the beginning of the Valiant Man course. Remember, we ultimately want to be able to pour out and feed God's kingdom from our hearts.
Now, going back to the accountability questions, think about your answers as ingredients in your marinade. Of the things in there, what do you personally need to take out? Need a hint? Go back and listen to Psalm's 1:1-3 again. What can you add in from that short passage? Two that were mentioned earlier that we will all add in that will go a long way and taste really good too are: Blessed & Prosperous. What can you take out? What should you take out this year? Marinade yourself in this "Nugget" over the next week or so and see what God reveals to you.
Until next time, keep
your eyes on Jesus !
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