By Leo Hellyer
As we live our lives out as Christian men, we face numerous challenges from many directions. It doesn’t take very long until we become battered, wounded, and downtrodden because we didn’t do everything completely right. We try to love everyone with a pure Christian heart, but sometimes hurts cloud our well-meaning actions and reactions.
If we try to be victors in spiritual warfare around us and only use our own strength, we find really quickly how many devious tricks the enemy has to make us stumble. As we become more seasoned in life – okay, as we become older – we may have difficulties accepting our age and all that infers physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We are flawed human beings and have fallen short. To be able to be as successful as we can in meeting the challenges we face, we must seek the power, truth, grace, and purity of God Almighty and His Word.
When we do this, we will discover that the church is not a country club for saints but a hospital for sinners. Jesus came to earth to save the lost. As Christian men we should be striving to be more Christlike every day. We must realize that we are in process. We have not arrived yet. We do not earn our way into heaven. It is a gift that is given to us by a gracious God.
As we should do in all aspects of our lives, let’s go to the Bible for guidance on this subject of attempting to live perfect lives.
In Philippians 1:6 Paul tells us, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” God has started something good in our lives, but it is not complete. We are a work in progress. We have not become perfect yet. We will not be perfect until we are in heaven. In Philippians 3:12 Paul says, “Not that I have already attained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” Instead of seeking perfection, we need to be seeking to be more like Jesus every day until we are called to heaven and are perfected.
Yes, we need to seek godly behavior in everything we do. We do need to be as Christlike as we can in our thoughts, actions, and reactions to the challenges we face, but we must realize that we will not be successful in doing that on our own. We need to work daily on our relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We must seek out godly people and follow their lead in how to live a faithful, productive, consistent, victorious Christian life.
We need to allow ourselves to be vulnerable at times and let others provide us with wise counsel in traveling through the minefield of spiritual warfare that we will face daily. Since we are not perfect yet, we must be prepared for those times when we stumble. We must be open to godly redirection. We must reach for the outstretched hands that are attempting to pick us up, dust us off, and get us back on the right track. We cannot be successful trying to get through our battles all alone.
God brings people into our lives for a specific purpose and season. If we have a good relationship with God, if we are paying attention, and if we are vulnerable, open, and obedient to His working in our lives, we will take advantage of these divine appointments and grow in our walk with the Lord.
God provides us with never-ending, unconditional love and guidance. God loves us so much that He doesn’t put us in a corner where we don’t have a choice of which direction to go. God loves us so much that He always gives us a choice of how we will respond to His loving council. We are not His puppets; He gives us free will.
When addressing this whole idea of being perfect in our Christian walk, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association says, “If God required us to be perfect, then no one – absolutely no one – would ever be able to be a Christian! We’re all sinners, and no matter how hard we try, we still sin and fall short of God’s standard. If this weren’t true, why would Jesus tell us to pray, ‘Forgive us our sins’ (Luke 11:4)?”
Perfection is not something that comes to us as soon as we become a Christian – or even because of living life as a Christian for many years. Christian perfection is a journey, a metamorphosis of sorts we go through. In our lives as Christians we continue to grow in our faith, love, and obedience to God. We cannot achieve this change in our own strength but only through the strength of Christ and His grace.
As we live our lives, we are constantly battling between right and wrong, good and evil, heaven and hell. We must always have the full armor of God with us as we go to battle. We cannot get complacent and let our guard down. We must be vigilant, prepared to stand up and face the enemy straight on. It’s not just our lives that depend on it, but also the lives of the people that God brings across our path.
Leo Hellyer is a non-staff pastor with a local church. He has been married to his wife, Norma, for 53 years and has served with Boise Rescue Mission for over 25 years. He is co-founder and training counselor with Taktikor Defense Group. If you have questions about Real Man’s Toolbox, or need other assistance, he may be reached at silverplate426@msn.com or (208) 340-5544.
