Interesting Steps To Becoming A Godly Man

What does it mean to be a man of God or a Godly man? It probably depends
on who you ask and their unique perception. Some would say that being a
man of God doesn’t sound like very much fun, while others would
consider a man of this caliber to be utterly weak.

I have
personally lived as a “split-rail” Christian for most of my adult life. I
was open about my faith when asked and “tried” to live according to
God’s word each day. But in reality, I had separated God from my life. I
went about my day-to-day business using God when I needed Him and
leaving Him out when not convenient. 

First let’s address the concerns I had about becoming a man of God.
These thoughts keep me at bay for years and hindsight they are weak but
at the time they were mountains.

My first thought was that it
was going to be quite embarrassing to tell my wife that I hadn’t been
the man of God I was supposed to be. This was a HUGE stumbling block for
me — even though we had established a good relationship. My pride was
strong. And if I showed weakness, I wouldn’t be a man’s man.

Looking
back, that was a weak excuse. There’s no other way to put it. My wife
is my partner, a relationship established by God. And the more she
knows, sees, and understands about me, the stronger a relationship we
can and will have.

Do NOT let pride keep you from doing what you know is right!

My
second thought was that giving control to God didn’t sound like much
fun, have you had that thought? Putting God in front of myself and then
my wife in front of me didn’t sound like a very good deal. If you do
the math, that meant that I was coming in third in my own life. Doesn’t
sound good, does it?

As a man, I’ve come to realize that I am
naturally an arrogant, prideful, and self-centered person who can easily
ONLY care about himself. But what did this get me? A miserable life. And nothing more. Are you currently in that situation?

To
overcome these natural human tendencies, you must be confident enough
to admit these faults, singlehandedly own them, and vow to work hard to
allow God to adjust your human, manly mindset.

My third thought
was that it was going to be difficult to keep up the self-discipline to
read my Bible daily, develop a prayerful life, and to work to apply
God’s principles in my daily life. These all were legitimate fears and
worries that required both honesty and humbleness to overcome.

Over
time, reading the Bible daily and learning about God has become an
enjoyable task. It’s comforting to know you can talk and pray with God
about anything at any time. And it’s been life changing to apply God’s
principles to my earthly life. Not dealing with life’s challenges and
disappointments by myself has truly changed all aspects of my life.

In
full disclosure, I struggled for many years with turning full control
of my life over to God. Now that didn’t mean that I was consciously
rebelling. In fact, I truly wanted to be a man of God. But the thought
of getting there was just too much! I didn’t know how to get from A to
B. I didn’t have the steps to make the whole process seem less
overwhelming. I had convinced myself that the life I had was exactly the
life I wanted! So why change? The problem lied in the fact that my life
had become devoid of patience and filled with bitterness, anxiety, a
short temper, stress, and all of the other wonderful adjectives related
to life without God.

What does being a man of God mean to me today? 

Life
is still full of hardships, bumps in the road, and everything else that
comes with life. None of that has changed. Nor will it ever change. But
something has transformed: how I handle the issues of life.

The 3-Step Plan to Becoming a Man of God:

First, turn everything over to God.
Stop trying to be in control of everything. You’re not. And once you
admit that and become OK with that, then you’ll start to notice a turn
in your life. When stress, anxiety, and hardships come, I now turn them
over unequivocally to God. I know that He has a bigger and better plan
for my life—a plan that I can’t even imagine! And sometimes it doesn’t
always work the first time and persistence may be required of me. I may
have to turn the same issue over to Him numerous times throughout a
given day, and that’s OK.

Second, an apology can be one of the most healing phrases in human relationships
— even more so than saying, “I love you.” My relationships are no
longer damaged because of a short temper and bitterness. And when I do
make a mistake, I now find it both difficult and easy to turn toward
that person and I say, “I’m sorry. I made a mistake,” or “I shouldn’t
have said that or done that,” and “I hope you can forgive me.”

Third, putting God and my wife in front of me has proven to be the only way to live.
This order of importance has provided me with more bounty than I could
have ever imaged. I know that it goes against human nature to put
someone else ahead of you. But I promise that if you do, the results
will shock you! Your reward will be tenfold.

So, in essence, what
is a man of God? He is a man who has decided to let God control his
life by applying God’s word to his everyday activities, by obeying God’s
lawful commands in all of his doings, and by serving God and showing
the love of Christ to others through both words and actions. It’s the
only way. And it’s so easy to discover.

I pray that this article blesses you, and I pray that you start your daily journey to give God control of your life.

Start today. You’ve got nothing to lose and so much to gain!

[written by Nathan Tabor]