How to Build a Godly & Manly FoxholeSample

NOTE: This devotional is meant to be consumed mainly in audio form. The text below simply serves as an outline for the audio material.

RECAP:     

• In Day 1 of this devotional, we answered the question: What makes a godly man?  
  
  
  
  • 1. Truths outside the self (the narrative of humanity)     
  
  
  • 2. Truths displayed publicly (answers the question: What makes a godly man?)
    
    
    
    • Listed characteristics of a godly man                    
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Make sure you go back and listen to that one if for some reason you missed it.
  
  

Today, we’re going over this question: WHAT MAKES A MANLY MAN?

At Undaunted.Life, we have a definition of what a “man” is, and it’s this: “A man is a male that cultivates spiritual, mental, and physical resilience DAILY.”

The Spiritual, Mental, and Physical Resilience of Navy SEAL Team SIX operator Adam Brown:    

• Spiritual  
  
  
  
  • Before his days as a Navy SEAL, Adam Brown was a drug addict, a thief, and a criminal.    
  
  
  • Excerpt from a book about Adam Brown called Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown by Eric Blehm.  This is an interaction between Adam and a man named Pastor Smith while Adam was in jail:  
    
    
    
    • “I’ve been here before with other people in jail,” Pastor Smith said. “They’ve prayed like we’re about to, but Adam, I want you to know that God can and really does want to change your life. But it begins with an honest and open desire from you to say, ‘God, no more is it about me; it’s about you.’ Are you ready for that commitment?”    
    
    
    • “I am,” said Adam, and on the other side of the glass partition he got off the chair, knelt down, bowed his head, and repeated after the pastor,    
    
    
    • God, for the first time in my life, I trust you. And God, I thank you that I’m here in jail. God, whatever you’ve got planned for my life, I trust you. God, I’m sorry for my sins. And today, the best way I know how, I ask you to come into my life. Come into my heart and save me. I want to begin a brand-new life. Amen.    
    
    
    • Pastor Smith visited Adam again after several days. “Adam had questions,” he says. “Lots of questions, but the biggest one was, ‘After all I’ve done, how do I begin to live this Christian life? How do I turn my life around?’ ”    
    
    
    • “Well, the bad news is you can’t,” Pastor Smith said to Adam. “But the good news is Christ can turn it around for you, and he’ll give you the strength and power to do it.”    
    
    
    • “How?” Adam asked.    
    
    
    • “Let me just show you a verse in the Bible. ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ That’s Philippians 4:13. If we try to do it within our own power, Adam, we’re going to fail.”                    
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Mental & Physical  
  
  
  
  • Story 1: Training accident, lost eye, learning to shoot with non-dominant eye    
  
  
  • Story 2: Humvee accident, learning to shoot with non-dominant hand    
  
  
  • Combined: Managed to not only stay a US Navy SEAL, he graduated from perhaps the hardest sniper school in the world, Naval Special Warfare Sniper School, a school he had previously failed shooting with two working eyes and his dominant hand, and he eventually passed Green Team screening to become a member of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) aka SEAL Team SIX.        
    
    
  
  
  
  

The story of Adam Brown’s life should remind us of another story of a truly manly man, and that’s the story of the Apostle Paul.

Paul is a manly man for a myriad of reasons, but  that is especially true because of how Paul comported himself at the beginning of his 2nd letter to his pupil Timothy.    

• Paul is absolutely up against it spiritually, mentally, and physically.  
  
  
  
  • Spiritual: He knows his execution and death are imminent:  
    
    
    
    • 2 Timothy 4:6-8            
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Mental: In this letter, Paul talks about how several of his supporters had abandoned him during this time in his life.    
  
  
  • Physical: Ancient Roman prisons weren’t known for their extreme comfort.            
  
  
  
  


• Paul is going through SMP anguish, but then he still manages to show resilience and share this message with Timothy:
  
  
  
  • 2 Timothy 1:1-14        
  
  
  
  

Before you move on to the next thing, here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. When it comes to spiritual, mental, and physical resilience, in which area am I lagging the most? How can I remedy that?

2. What steps am I going to take TODAY to begin correcting that?

3. Who are the men in my life that are cultivating spiritual, mental, and physical resilience daily?

For more content like this, be sure to check out our other YouVersion devotionals.

Make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 3 where we discuss if you can be both godly and manly.

Until then, keep pushing back darkness… keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical resilience… KEEP SEEKING THE LION OF JUDAH.

 

For the interview with Eric Blehm, click here .