Undaunted.Life: A Man's DevotionalSample

PHYSICAL, Day 7: Living Sacrifice

God does not want part of us; he wants all of us. As you have worked your way through this devotional, you have become more aware of and involved with the three aspects of an Undaunted.Life: spiritual, mental, and physical resilience. Maybe you are in a good place on one or two of these aspects, but in most every man there are areas within those aspects that we need to sharpen or develop.

The entire purpose of this devotional is to push you and stretch you beyond where you currently reside. You may be crushing it in one of these three areas, but if you are lacking in the others then you are likely not where you want to be and certainly not where God wants you to be.

One of the dangers of modern manhood is that men become content and live for comfort. Maybe you feel like since you are not a pastor that you shouldn’t cultivate spiritual resilience. Perhaps you have convinced yourself that once your formal education ended that you no longer needed to strive to expand your mental capabilities. Possibly you do not see how your physical health and wellness is attached in any way to serving God. Hopefully by now, those paradigms have shifted enough to where you are willing to push your boundaries and make some much-needed changes.

At the beginning of Romans 12, Paul brings his previous arguments about God’s grace to a close as he springboards his readers into a discussion about how to please God with our lives. He uses a great deal of Old Testament sacrificial language and imagery because his audience is very familiar with such practices. Prior to Jesus, it was the blood of dead animals that allowed you to please God. After Jesus’ work on the cross, it is a life of continual sacrifice and dying to oneself that allows for pleasing God.

We must die to our fleshly desires in order to truly live a life that God wants us to. We must increase our spiritual depth. We must widen our mental ability. We must cultivate our physical bodies. Combining these three areas and focusing on them will allow us to push back the darkness of this world and push forward to the glory God has prepared for us.

Embrace your personal Undaunted.Life.