Men, you are called to strength. In Hebrew 11 we’re exhorted to emulate men who through faith became mighty. Out of weakness they were made strong. When fights came they waxed valiant. Out of the soil of evangelical faith grow the cedar trees of strength.
This strength isn’t isolated to our inner life; as if we can tuck away our faith in Jesus deep into some inner crypt. No, the strength that arises from faith forms throughout our body, soul, and mind. Furthermore, it must be trained and maintained through disciplined diligence. You won’t be resilient in the day of testing if you don’t practice resilience every day of your life. And fathers, you won’t have sons resembling the aforementioned cedars if you fail to teach them self-denial, endurance, and long-suffering.
Physical strength training is a determined willingness to die. Your body desires to not do any more reps; but if you kill that desire and do one more rep, one more lap, one more drill your strength will grow. Likewise, you fight sin by getting up early each day, putting to death the desire to linger in bed, and hardening yourself with a little less sleep but a little more Scripture.
Especially in these times of madness, you men must erect walls of security around your family time and time and time again. St. Paul’s simple words embody the life of Christian faith: “I die daily.” Provide for your family by hard labor one more day. Lead them with gentle steadiness one more time. Instruct your children in faithfulness once more. Do not grow weary. This is a command. But since it’s a command of Scripture it’s also a promise. By faith in Christ, God promises that you shall go, as the Psalmist says, from strength to strength with hands trained for war.
We live in a day similar to Ezekiel’s where all hands are feeble, and all knees are weak as water. Men have abdicated and grown weary of the warfare. Our currency is devalued through the vanity of our cultural greed. Our bodies are afflicted with the diseases of unbridled appetites. Our minds polluted with wicked imaginations. Many men have lost their nerve and have capitulated to the godless despair of our age. May God forgive men who claim the name of Christ for where we have compromised and joined in the follies of our society. And may our Lord raise up men who are girt for the combat, men who are grit to the core.
Ben Zornes – May 5, 2024
