What Kind of Man Are You?

What Kind of Man Are You?

It's 2:14 in the morning. You hear glass break downstairs, and before you're fully awake, you're already on your feet. You don't make a plan. You don't call a meeting. You move toward the sound and put yourself between the dark and the people you love. Men, God wired that into you, and I'm not going to apologize for it.
But here's what bothers me. The same man who would run down a dark staircase won't walk down a lit hallway and ask his child a hard question. He'll take a hit for his family, but he won't pray at his own kitchen table. We have plenty of men who will protect their families some that are slow to lead them spiritually.
That's the question God puts to three men in 1 Kings 18: What kind of man are you?
Ahab abdicates. He's powerful and busy, but in the middle of a famine his big plan is to save the horses and mules. He's solving the wrong problem, and when the truth shows up, he blames the messenger. That's the oldest male reflex in the book. Adam stood right there in the garden and said nothing.
Obadiah hides. I want to be fair to him. He hid a hundred prophets in a cave and fed them, and that's real courage. But he has faith for the cave and none for the road. When God says go, he starts listing his résumé. A lot of good men live there, quietly faithful and afraid to be seen.
Elijah stands. Not because he felt brave. He got a word from God and obeyed it. "As the LORD lives, before whom I stand." The Hebrew word, ʿāmad, is servant language. Elijah could stand before Ahab because he had already learned to stand before God, in a dry creek bed and a widow's kitchen, when nobody was watching. And he wasn't superhuman. A chapter later, he's under a broom tree, exhausted and afraid.
Here's the gospel under all of it. You can't manufacture courage. You receive it from a Savior who stood before Pilate, took our blame, and now stands at the Father's right hand for us. He didn't wait until we got brave. He died for us while we were still weak.
Two Steps This Week
1. Stand Before. Elijah got the word before he got the courage, so start there. For seven days, give God ten minutes every morning, same spot, before you open your phone.

• Read a Psalm slowly. Psalm 27 and Psalm 62 are good places to begin.
• Name the fear you've been avoiding. Be specific. "I'm afraid my son will shut me out" is better than "I'm afraid of failing."
• Ask Him one question: "Lord, what's my next step?" Write down what comes to mind and do it.

Don't quit on day three. That's usually when you need it most.
2. Step Forward. By the end of the week, take one visible act of spiritual leadership. Pick one and put it on your calendar:

• Pray out loud with your family tonight. Keep it short. It will feel awkward the first time, and that's fine.
• Knock on the door. Go to your wife, your son, or your daughter and say, "I haven't led you the way I should. I'm done with that. Let's grow together."
• Say "that's on me" to someone you've been blaming.
• Ask another man to coffee and tell him, "I don't want to do this alone."

You don't have to feel brave first. Courage grows in small acts of obedience.
Come back to 2:14 a.m. You already know what you'd do. Somewhere in your house, someone is listening for footsteps in the hall. So get up.

— Pastor Travis Young Lead Pastor, Frontier Church Advancing the Gospel into New Frontiers