53 - The 12 Movements - #3 A Man Remembers How He is Made
The "Living with Heart" Podcast is brought to you by Chip Dodd Resources (www.chipdodd.com) and The Voice of the Heart Center (vothcenter.com). Contact Bryan Barley for coaching at bryan@vothcenter.com.
Endurance and Perseverance are different:
Endurance is the ability to “take the blows” that life delivers.
Perseverance is that and more; it is the ability to fight back.
We are created to persevere, but we need to learn how, and we need help to know how.
We have to practice asking for help.
A Man Remembers How He is Made:
A man needs to admit every day, with deep awareness, that he is not God, and is created by God. He did not create himself. He was created.
An inspired man, versus just one who is ambitious, knows that he is in service of something greater than himself, a mission that his heart is “called” to.
A man humbly faces his need of God, and he does not attempt to take credit for what he did not create.
Therefore, a man serves a higher authority and a higher purpose than himself, and he orders his life accordingly as was discussed in Episode #52.
In serving a higher authority and purpose, a man contends with three areas of struggle, as part of the purpose of living with passion, intimacy, and integrity.
He brings full hearted presence into a society and “world” that often lacks the heart leadership.
He brings advocacy; he speaks up for issues and people who suffer in silence or suppression.
He brings order into chaos or destructive influences.
No man succeeds alone. He needs the help of others; he needs their encouragement, wisdom, and strength. He also needs God’s encouragement, wisdom, and strength to keep him inspired to persevere in his purpose.
Surrender is vital for a man to succeed and persevere. Surrender does not mean defeat. The word means to “render over,” or “give back.”
Much of our society teaches self-reliance and self-sufficiency, when actually a man needs to hand himself over to God, as in surrender himself to God, to be the strength and courage that he needs to live his purpose.
A man who attempts to live self-sufficiently or with self-reliance only needs to surrender to God who can do so much more with His strength in a man than the man can ever do on his own.
The “Living with Heart” podcast series on Codependency is vital to grasping the difference between self-reliance and God-reliance. Episodes #32 - # 44.
Dependence is a good thing. It is God’s gift to us. It allows us to be in need of the One who made us and desires good for us.
A man who does not depend on God, or metaphorically doesn’t drink from the well of “living water” will not last. He will not be able to bring “water” to others. He will fail with his “life-giving” purpose.
Surrender is submitting one’s heart to God. Submission is the willingness to place my own desire “under” the greater mission that God has designed for us.
God desires our dependence and our submission so He can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God truly is the strength-giver.
A man, therefore, awakens daily and admits his need of God and others to give him the continued strength, perseverance, and inspiration to stay on whatever “mission” God has “called” him to do. In this way, we live fully, love deeply, and lead well.
A man expresses humility by daily surrender and submission of the desires of his heart, humbly asking God to do for him what he himself does not have the power to do on his own.
Humility is where we get the word dirt or humus. We are made of dirt, though the dirt is “God made” and “God touched.” We are special dirt!
Psalm 139 speaks to how we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14, NIV)
For you created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
(Psalm 139:13-14)
Being God-made and humbly knowing that is a very good truth.
Psalm 37:4 says: “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (NIV)
Our surrender, submission, and humility will bring us strength and blessings.
Psalm 8:3-5 tells us that we are not big, but to God we are a very “big deal”:
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and stars, which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
We are God’s masterpieces, even God’s poetry, and have been given a mission—to do good, good works, and leave behind good things that others can treasure in their hearts.
No matter where a man begins his journey of surrender, submission, and humility, it is always a good place to start to grow.
God even uses our past mistakes, wasted past, and sins to become a blessing. He can take our garbage and turn it into compost that can grow a garden.
Look at the story of the thief on the cross from Luke 23:39-43. It tells the story as the man drew his last breaths what God can do with our surrender, submission, and humility.
In God’s hands, that “thief on the cross,” who had wasted his life, becomes a living legacy we can treasure in our hearts 2000 years later!
If we do not remember how we are made:
we will pursue distractions
we will miss much that we can have
we will miss what is worth suffering for and the joy of what we were meant to do
We are created to do much more than endure life; we are created to persevere in this life, as we live the “callings” that we have been given.
To persevere, a man must daily remember how he is made.
We are God-made and need God and others to do for us and with us what we cannot do alone.
Dr. Chip Dodd
Voice of the Heart Center