Jesus...Make Me The Man You Want Me To Be

There is a favorite song of mine that Phil Joel does, called "Make Me The Man You Want Me To Be" on the "Bring It On" cd. Here is a video link that I found of him doing it live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Le9oZbRGI

I got to thinking about that, Jesus making me the man that He wants me to be. Sometimes we throw around Christian type phrases like this, but Jesus has done everything that He is going to do, I just have to walk in what He has purchased for me. So really Jesus, make me the man that You want me to be is something of a misleading statement.

I have to take what I see that Jesus has done for me (this is found in the Bible) and begin to agree with what His Word says about me and do those things that I find in there. I have to love my wife, which while Jesus by His Spirit can encourage me to do this, it ultimately is up to me and me alone to do that. I can love my neighbor as myself, but again Jesus won't make me do that, I have to take the time to actually love my neighbor, and that takes time and effort.

I know that I want to be the man that Jesus wants me to be, but it can't be a passive thing, I have to be active in pursuing it. I think that is where many of us fail, we want to be the men that Jesus wants us to be, but we are unwilling to put the effort into getting there. And believe me there is effort in attaining that place. I have not arrived, but I'm on the journey...won't you join me? If you are already on the journey, shoot me an email and let me know how it's going...I'm always looking to meet other men working to be the men that Jesus wants them to be...

Strength and honor......

Is This Your Battle To Fight?

I was talking with a friend the other day. He had called me to ask my opinion about a situation that was going on in his business. Without going into the particulars, and naming names, suffice it to say that my friend is a Christian business man, and his employee is not a Christian.

As we talked, he told me that he was going to have to fire the employee, and that he didn't want that to cause this man to not come to Christ as a result. We talked a little more, and I told him that he really needed to seperate the two issues, one, the fact that he wanted this young man to be saved (a noble thing to be sure) and two the fact that he was not doing the job that he was hired to do.

As I have thought about this a little bit more today, it got me to wondering if we actually take on battles that really we haven't been called to fight. I know that there have been times where I felt like I needed to jump in and try and save the day, but did I actually? I mean if I took the time to stop and search my heart asking the Father, I might have been better off.

I'm pretty sure that some of the things that I feel are all important and need doing, the Father would say otherwise. It's not always my fight, sometimes these things just get in the way of what Jesus would actually have us to do. I think sometimes the enemy brings things to us to battle that aren't our fight, just to distract us from what the Father really wants.

Anyway, that's just a random thought for the day...keep your sword up...strength and honor........