By Pastor David Brown
One day a young Bible School student told me that I should always wear a T-Shirt. When I asked him why he replied, “Because it makes you look bigger!”. I had to laugh. I mean really...how much bigger does it actually make you look? Maybe a centimeter?
A lot of men want to look bigger. They want to be taller. They want to be more muscular and more massive. It also extends to the image they portray. Many want to look more important, more significant, more influential and more powerful. But, there’s something much more important than looking bigger. It’s actually being bigger!
Physical exercise and the right kind of diet can certainly make a person bigger and stronger. Likewise, mental exercise, reading and learning can make a person bigger intellectually. It is also true that spiritual discipline combined with the right spiritual diet will make a believer bigger and stronger spiritually!
BIGGER...
The Psalmist understood something very significant which he revealed in this prayer...
I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
Psalm 119:32
He believed that in order to run with God, in order to keep God’s commandments and accomplish what God wanted him to achieve...he needed something from God. He needed God to enlarge his heart! He needed God to make him bigger on the inside, bigger in his inward man. He needed to be made bigger in his spirit and soul!
He understood that he could not fulfill God’s will and plan for his life without God doing a work in his heart! He understood that the life we live outwardly is determined by who we are on the inside! Wow! What a truth! No human being can fully achieve God’s plan for his life by simple will power. No! We have to be engraced! We have to be empowered! We have to be made bigger by the great big God that is bigger than any of our flaws, challenges, obstacles, sidetracks and setbacks! We have to be made bigger on the inside so we can be better on the outside!
BETTER...
I want to be better! I want to a better Christian. I want to be a better man! Don’t you want to be a better man or a better woman? It starts with God making you bigger on the inside. Then we become empowered to live better, perform better, love better and achieve better! So, how do we be bigger so we can be better? God our Father gives us the answer.
The person who places their faith in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished for us on the cross and in His resurrection is reborn and changed on the inside. This is where we start. Old things pass away and all things become new (in our inward man) according to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17. Once our spirit is reborn and made right with God, we are joined to God spiritually. We have access to his grace and power. We have relationship with that great big God and His bigness. His greatness can be imparted into our lives. Again, this is the first step.
Now, as we start to hear and meditate in God’s Word we begin to eat a good spiritual diet. You have to eat to grow. We must eat well spiritually in order to grow on the inside. Now, when we begin to pray and call on the Lord for help, he begins to strengthen us. He begins to build some spiritual muscle in our lives. When we pray in the Holy Spirit, we are edified (built up) on the inside. (See 1 Corinthians 14:4a)
Romans 12:2 exhorts us to “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds”. As we hear the word of God and listen to the Spirit of God, be begin to think differently and have different opinions. We begin to adopt God’s ways and perceptions. We are being transformed into the people God wants us to be instead of being pressed into the worlds’ mold. Through the spiritual disciplines of hearing and believing God’s instructions, prayer, worship and service we can become bigger on the inside...and live better on the outside!
BOLDER...
In the book of Acts, the history of the early church, we find that when the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem saw the boldness of the Apostles Peter and John, they knew that they had been with Jesus! Yes, being with Jesus will make you bold, brave and outspoken! When we receive God’s word, pray, worship and serve in His kingdom work, we’re spending time with Jesus!
It’s a discernible fact that the more contact a believer has with Jesus, walking with Him, experiencing Him and hearing from Him, the more bold they become. It is also true that believers who fall into spiritual compromise are less bold and more backward about their faith, their relationship with God, their beliefs and their standards.
When we get bigger on the inside and better on the outside we also become bolder in our witness to the outside world! This crazy, confused, convoluted world really needs us as believers to be bolder in our faith, bolder in our witness and bolder in our ministry to them. The world needs us to stand out, not blend in! God needs us to share His love and truth with a lost world! That happens when we get bigger, better and bolder!
The powerful 20th century Pentecostal evangelist Smith Wigglesworth famously said, “Most Christians feed their bodies three hot meals a day, but they only feed their spirits one cold snack a week!” No wonder they’re so weak, right? Of course, he made that remark when Christians practiced weekly church attendance in weak, anemic churches. Today, many believers only attend church a few times each year and many times the churches they choose to attend are not strong in teaching God’s word or exampling a strong faith. How big on the inside can that possibly make us?
I encourage you. Let’s get the right kind of spiritual exercise. Let’s be with Jesus! Let’s attend and participate in the right kind of church, a strong bible teaching, Jesus loving fellowship with standards and a strong witness to your community!
Let’s make the quality decision to become BIGGER, so we ca be BETTER and BOLDER!
ATTENTION ALL MEN!
Abundant Church in El Paso, Texas is conducting a Men’s Conference September 8-9, 2023!
Pastor David Brown, Abundant Church Pastor of Men’ Ministry is leading this conference.
The Conference theme is “BIGGER, BETTER BOLDER!”
Log on to this website for more info and registration.
https://abundant.org/menconf