Strength for Uncompromising Men

You want to be a strong young man. You want the ability to square your shoulders when the enemy of your soul attacks and win. God offers you His strength as you learn to trust Him and fight. There are many battles young men commonly face. As you grow in your adventures with God, you will learn to rely on Him, and He will lead you to victory. As His son, you don’t have to assume failure or settle for a compromised life. You can face battles and win!

There is a confident strength that belongs only to those who live life God’s way—to those who adventure with God, do battle His way, and live out their God-given task. It is a confidence reserved for those who know that God is pleased with them, and it leads to an inner strength that shows up in every area of life. They are the qualities we see in men of uncompromising character that we admire.

Uncompromising men of God know their source of in these areas.

Protection

Your greatest protection is your integrity. Integrity means wholeness. You do not have a divided heart. You are not one person at church and another at school and another at home. You walk with God every day and do what pleases Him. You are a young man of character everywhere, whether alone or in the presence of others. The temptation for many young men is to lie. You make a mistake or cut a corner and get found out. Do you lie and cover it up, or do you tell the truth?

A lie promises to give you something it can’t deliver—protection. The lie goes like this, “If I lie, I shield myself from embarrassment or punishment.” The lie deceives you because often you actually do get away with it for a while, maybe even a long time. Then, you begin to live a lie, faking your way through life. The lie promised protection but led to fear of being found out. You don’t feel safe around people because you are afraid you will be exposed.

The battle uncompromising men win is the battle for godly integrity. It is their source of safety. That is something a lie can never deliver.

Manhood

Every guy wants to prove he has what it takes to be a real man. That desire is incredibly strong because God himself put it there. Only God can truly fill this need. The problem comes when you look for this stamp of approval from someone or something other than God. The answer that comes back from false sources can make you feel very good for a while, but ultimately will leave you empty, ashamed, and confused.

One of the wrong places guys often find themselves seeking this approval is from girls. God made girls to reflect His beauty and mercy, so naturally we should and do find them highly attractive. That is by God’s design. However, God did not create femininity to settle your deep question, “Am I a real man?” Only God can answer that.

Many young men today do what Adam did in the Garden. When faced with the choice between God and the girl, they often choose the beautiful girl they can see over God whom they cannot see. A guy might push the limits with a young lady and brag about it in the locker room as though his actions prove he is a man. Wrong! She is not a conquest to be taken; she is a priceless princess, a child of God.

You are made to offer her strength, to give her protection, and to love her at a high cost to yourself. That price is battling back the urges to lust after her and act inappropriately toward her, taking what she should rightly give only to her husband on the night of their marriage. When you take from a girl what is not yours to be had, even if she offers it, you act weak in your lust. God did not create you to take from her but rather to give her protection. You may need to help protect her from her own choices. Doing so will protect you as well.

How do you find the source of true manhood? The answer is found in God. Let Him initiate you into manhood. He will give you the answer as you grow in His Word. Make it a daily habit. Don’t just read it; that’s boring. Live it! Look for every time God calls you on adventure. Those calls are easy to find if you’re alert. If He says, “Be truthful,” and you realize you have lied, you immediately ask forgiveness and for His help to be honest. That is a call to adventure, a call to depend on Him. No more hiding behind deceit. You are called to square your shoulders and be truthful, to be a man of integrity.

As you pay special attention to obey these calls to adventure, you will discover God is helping you. Over time you will develop a confidence that only comes by taking your question to God and accepting His invitations to adventure. God will not speak a quick and empty, “Oh, yes, of course, you have what it takes!” What He will do is guide you on adventures so you discover that in Him you really do have what it takes.

In addition to His Word, God will use other godly boys and men to teach you and to challenge you. Look for guys who are also adventuring with God, accepting His every call to obey Him. Together you can discover the answer to this deep and important question. Don’t seek it alone; go with God and with godly men by your side.

This critically important question, “Do I have what it takes to be a man?” can never be answered by a girl. Instead, take it to God and to godly men who are committed to living out the adventures presented in the Word. An important side benefit to relying on God to answer this question can be summed up in a wise saying fathers once passed onto their sons, “An ounce of confidence is worth more than a pound of good looks.” When you discover you are a real man because of your growing trust in the Lord, that confidence will attract quality girls and protect you from worldly ones. Noble girls are attracted to guys with godly confidence and will stick with them.

The safety you offer her from your deep godly strength will serve as a foundation that will benefit you and your future. She will be so grateful to have found a true man who goes to God for His strength because she can depend on you to offer that strength to her. The security and happiness that will provide her and the trust she will have in you will far exceed any short-term “conquests” you might enjoy today. Live for God’s stamp of approval on your life every day!

Provision

God takes care of men by giving them talents and abilities to be creative, to make money, to provide for their families, and to be generous. God is proud of young men who learn a strong work ethic.

Unfortunately, our culture encourages boys to value entertainment over hard work. There is nothing wrong with having fun, but it should be balanced with effort, accomplishment, and a love for hard work. Without this balance, you run the risk of becoming lazy and getting into trouble.

King Solomon said, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23) and “One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys” (Proverbs 18:9).

The most extreme form of laziness is theft, taking what others have worked for. Paul wrote, “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need” (Ephesians 4:28).

The opposite of laziness is being a workaholic. These are guys who work too much. They don’t take enough time to play and hang out with friends and family. King Solomon might have been a workaholic. He said, “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me” (Ecclesiastes 2:17). But he wouldn’t suggest laziness either. He knew it was important to work, “A person can do nothing better than . . . find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 2:24).

Both of these extremes—laziness and overworking—deny God the place He deserves as your Provider. They rob you of the inner assurance that He will take care of you. These extremes make you take things into your own hands and either cut corners or work yourself to the bone. Both extremes are wrong. The battle is to keep a good balance.

Reputation

You are who God says you are, and not the person that others claim you are. You are not defined by the stuff you own and how it makes you feel. You are God’s son. That is where you draw your status, your value, and your identity. God will be your Father and make you the very best version of you possible. As He does, you draw your worth from Him. He offers true status and stature.

Many young men step into a trap, the pitfall of drawing their reputation or status from the friends they hang out with, the clothes they wear, and the things they buy. Of course, friends are important, and no one expects you to ignore today’s styles and to dress like Moses from the Old Testament. But you should not allow friends, styles, and possessions to give you something to boast or be prideful about. Paul writes, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord” (2 Corinthians 10:17).

Humbly ask God to shape you into His character every day so that your thoughts, words, and actions make Him look good. In time, you will discover that He is a sure foundation on which to build your life. Your friends will have off days, styles will change, and things will break. Chasing these things to get status will leave you bankrupt! God will never have an off day; He will always be there for you and will never change or break. He is a rock! So draw strength from Him rather than these other things. Then, you will be able to share His strength with your friends. When styles change and things get lost, you might feel bad, but your world will not be shaken.

The battle is to draw your status, worth, and identity from God, not anyone or anything else. If Satan can get you fixated on what others think of whom you hang with, what you wear, and the cool stuff you flash around, he will make you weak and easy to take out. Building your life on what others think of you is unwise. Build your life on what God thinks of you instead. That is the battle!

Integrity

When Adam and Eve sinned, they were ashamed and hid themselves, hoping God would not notice. Perhaps they thought they could live a double life—with God seeing them one way while they lived another. But He did see their sin, and He will always see you for who and what you really are. It does no good to fake it. God, and eventually others, will always discover the real you.

Satan would like you to adopt a double life, preferring a false public image above the private reality. He would love for you to act like a spiritual person at church and around parents and others, but live a very different life with your school friends or when you’re alone. Satan will be happy to let you act like you’re spiritual at church and worldly at school. But you want to be the real deal no matter where you are or whom you’re with. John, one of Jesus’ disciples, wrote a letter from Jesus to a church that said, “You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead” (Revelation 3:1). The public image was one thing, but the reality was another. You should refuse to live that way!

You are to battle for substance over image. You don’t want to look like a strong man; you want to be a strong man! So don’t live a split life. Be true and honest; do what’s right when people are looking and when they are not, when people praise you and when they don’t. Live every moment to hear the applause of God.

Religion

At school and throughout life, you will interact with people of other religions and belief systems, and probably with some people who choose not to believe in God at all. The Bible makes it very clear that salvation can only be found in a faith relationship with God through Jesus Christ. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Everyone needs a Savior and only Jesus is that Savior. In Galatians, Paul warns about allowing anyone to throw you off course. Any gospel that does not point you to the divine Jesus is false (see Galatians 1:8).

You will need to stand firm in this relationship and be patient and kind toward those who haven’t accepted Christ as their Savior. They will be watching you. If you are careful with them, especially when they make fun of you, they will be drawn to the truth of the gospel. You will have to be strong.

It might come as a surprise to you, but Satan doesn’t mind religion at all. What he hates is relationship with God. He knows that people who enter into friendship with Jesus will become more and more what God designed them to be. That is the last thing Satan wants. Religious and even moral people don’t bother him.

Religions can be appealing to people, and there are a couple of things that Satan really likes about them. Religions give people a false sense of security by letting them think, “If I go to church, the temple, the mosque, or the synagogue and follow the rules, I’ll be okay.” They also create a sense of independence by suggesting, “I don’t have to bend my knee to Jesus Christ.” We are not saved because we follow religious rules, rituals, and traditions but because we have a personal, growing relationship with Jesus Christ, making Him our best Friend and the Leader of our lives.

The battle here includes two things: First, never let your relationship with God turn into keeping rules, duty, and routine. Instead, keep your friendship with God alive and new every day. Stay in the Word, talk with God, and serve those around you. Second, don’t be fooled by false religions. A false religion is any spiritual system that adds to, subtracts from, divides, or multiplies the Word of God. Any religion that does not point you to God through Jesus Christ alone is false. Don’t be fooled.

Defense

God gives young men like you strength to stand up and defend yourself and others when attacked. That strength is not given for revenge. It is right to defend your reputation when falsely accused, but you must never cross into retaliation: “I’ll show him! He’ll be sorry he ever crossed me.” Letting God avenge a wrong committed against you takes a deep level of trust and is hard to practice. God says, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (Deuteronomy 32:35). You naturally want to take matters into your own hands whenever you feel slighted or hurt, but you should develop a heart that cannot be offended and that refuses to harbor bitterness and anger. If your heart trusts God to defend you, He will protect you from one of Satan’s greatest weapons—deadweight. Dragging offenses with you throughout life will keep you from going far with God and with others.

Allowing bitterness and anger to drive you to get even will hold you back in every area of your life. Let it go by forgiving people when they hurt you. Trust God to set people straight. He can and will do it! That requires real backbone and real trust. Doing so makes you free and alive, free of bitterness and anger.

God is your source of strength and confidence. Anyone or anything that takes God’s place in your life will leave you empty. Battle any counterfeits that replace God as the center of your life. The Old Testament prophets called anything that became a substitute for God an idol. Idols say they’ll deliver what God promises, but can never come through. Only God can come through for you and make you into the strong, confident man He designed you to become.

In My Experience:

It’s much easier to win battles when you expect them because you can prepare. Governments spend millions of dollars gathering intelligence for this very reason. They don’t want to be taken by surprise.

As a young boy and teen, I was very observant. Perhaps that is the advantage of being the youngest in the family. I learned a lot by watching my older brother and sister. If they got in trouble I made sure to avoid their mistakes. Likewise, when they did something right, I followed their example.

I also listened to Bible stories over and over. The men and woman of the Bible illustrate successes and failures. Moses, Daniel, Josiah, Johanadab, and Peter are among my favorites. Isn’t it intriguing that God didn’t hide their flaws? Biographies of great men inspired me, too, like Hudson Taylor, Brother Andrew, Jim Elliot, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Historical figures like George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, American circuit riding preachers like Peter Cartwright, and men like John Wesley, William Wallace, and Martin Luther King, Jr. are all greats. And men I admired surrounded me as well. My dad was at the top of that list.

Not only was I inspired by their stories, I realized their circumstances were unique but their battles were the same I was facing in my own way. And their experiences prepared me for challenges I’d face later. Their lives helped me live up to the call of 1 Timothy 4:12: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” What better way to set an example than to stand on the shoulders of men who had won and lost battles I can learn from? It’s easier to win battles you can anticipate and prepare for, and it’s best when you can avoid them altogether.