The Spiritual Man's Obstacle CourseSample

5. Facing the Trenches (part 2)

Grace vs. Pride–Grit vs. Passivity

“This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all the same testing we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God… and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” – Hebrews 4:15-16

Men need both grace and grit. Grace is God enabling us to be the men He calls us to be. Grit, on the other hand, is us stepping up, doing the hard things, and allowing God to work in and through us.

Grace

The biggest threats to understanding a life of grace are shame and pride. Now as men, we usually feel shame only until we are reminded of Christ’s complete work, bringing a release to our guilt as we understand the atonement for our sins. However, most of us easily step into the pothole of pride when we start overcoming shame and start feeling accomplished.

While shame keeps us blind to the work of Christ, our pride can often keep us blind to the work of the enemy, Satan. And this becomes a pothole most men step into repeatedly. When we start to feel accomplished, we forget that most of our favor and blessing comes from God’s grace through Christ, and not anything we have done (Ephesians 2:8-10).

So, when we sin and fall, we usually forget God’s grace and stay stuck in shame. When we live in victory, we tend to become proud and neglect God’s grace that enabled our victory in the first place. Man of God, like any good athlete or soldier, you need balance. God’s grace gives you the ability to side-step the pothole of pride and the strength to get up out of the slum of shame.

Grit

Today’s passage from Hebrews reminds us that everything in our obstacle course of faith starts and ends with Jesus. But yesterday’s passage also challenges us to strip off every weight that holds us back, grab hold of the grace that’s on offer, and endure! In other words—show some grit!

Another pothole men get stuck in is passivity. Passivity kills productivity! And when we only settle for the initial work of God’s grace—to cover our sins and not it’s complete work—enabling us to become the men He intended—we settle to hide in the trench of passivity, hindering the productivity of Christ in and through us. But Paul calls us to stand tall in God’s grace and show our steel.

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” – 1 Corinthians 16:13

In the original Greek translation here, the phrase "be courageous" was like saying "be men." Thus, for the apostle Paul, masculinity and courage could not be separate in the life of faith. We need to be on our GUARD, show RESILIENCE and INTEGRITY, while standing firm on the TRUTH–thus showing some GRIT!

This is how we overcome passivity: Realizing that grace is not a credit card without a limit, but rather the steppingstone to show grit without limits! Passivity led to disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Adam decided to not engage instead of guarding with resilience and standing with integrity on God’s truth. Yet, Jesus overcame passivity with his very existence in human nature and kept stepping out of the trenches that men were hiding in for centuries to drive back the enemy. More of this in the next devotional.

Jesus not only gave us grace, but he also showed us what grit looks like. This should motivate us to stop tripping in the trenches of spirituality and start stepping up in faith!

Read Hebrews 4:14-16 and reflect on the following:

• What’s your observation(s) from this reading?
• What’s your understanding of the relation between grit and grace?
• What’s the biggest obstacle to overcome pride and/or passivity in your life?
• What should you pray about after today’s reading?