Man Up to The Long Road

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Gentlemen, every day is a battle. A battle for your faith, your family, and your purpose. The men who stand strong don't prepare when the battle arrives. They prepare before it begins. Welcome to the men's morning devotional. Let's get into God's word. It's time to man up.

Chris Alessi 0:25

Alright, men, we are here at day three of week seven. Again, my name is Chris Alesi, and I want to welcome you to the Men's Morning Devotional. The title of our podcast today is Manning Up to the Long Road. And here's our man up moment. There are no shortcuts to the life God has for you. The crooked path feels faster until it isn't. We're looking at Proverbs chapter 2, verse 15, and it says this it's in the middle of a statement, and I just want to focus on it. But if you read it, it says, A man whose paths are crooked and who is devious in his ways. So for context, verses 12 to 15 speaks about wisdom saving you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse. And then it ends with what we read, men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. So I want to start by looking at that word crooked. In Hebrew, the word doesn't just mean kind of morally out of shape or bent, though it does mean that, but it carries the picture of something that's been twisted out of its original shape. A path that should be straight, but now has been bent, angled, or rerouted. And here's what I want you to notice Solomon doesn't say these men were born on a crooked path. He says in verse 13 that they actually left the straight paths. It was a choice, a direction someone walked away from. And then there's the devious. In Hebrew, that word actually means to turn aside, to go a different way than one intended. Devious doesn't always look evil from the outside. It sometimes looks clever. Like a workaround, a loophole, a smarter way to get to the destination without having to do the hard work of the straight road. Devious is the man who cuts the corner because he thinks he's too smart, too gifted, or too important to have to go the long way. And that's where we have to connect this to our day-to-day today. Because the temptation toward the crooked path almost never presents itself as wickedness. It presents itself as a shortcut. Like a stretch of the truth on this one deal so we close it faster. Or to check out of this hard conversation with your spouse to avoid the conflict, or to take the easy win now, even if it costs you your integrity later, to put in the appearance of the work without actually doing the work. To look the part without actually being the part. And here's what we learn living our lives as men. We've watched lives play out over and over again. The shortcut always costs more than the long road. Always. And when we get to the end of this week, we'll talk about where the road of the principled man eventually leads. But the man who cuts the corner in his marriage will pay for it. The man who takes the shortcut at work will pay for it. The man who skips the inner work, the prayer, the pursuit of God's word, the honesty to oneself, the self-examination, the man who skips all of that just to perform all of this. He will pay for that. Solomon is writing to his own son in the book of Proverbs. He's a father passing down what he knows to the next generation of men. And what he's saying here is, son, wisdom's gonna protect you from the man who thinks he's found a better way. Because that man, the crooked man, the devious man, again, when we read those words, we think it's so much worse. I could never be crooked. I could never be devious, but he's just talking about the man that's taking a shortcut. And he's telling his son, that man's actually not ahead of you. He's already lost. His path looks faster from the outside, but it leads to somewhere you don't want to go. The principled man, however, the man that we're building this week and with this podcast, chooses the long road. Not because he's naive, but because he understands something the shortcut man hasn't figured out yet. The straight path is the only one that actually gets you where you want to go. So man up to the long road today. It's the only road that leads somewhere worth going. So here's your man up challenge. Where are you currently tempted to take a shortcut? Be specific. Is it your marriage, your work, your spiritual life, your health, or your finances? Name the shortcut. Then name what the straight road actually looks like in that area. And then man up and commit to the long road. And if you really, really want to take it seriously, tell somebody about it. Now let's pray. Father, we confess there are places in our lives where we've been looking for the easier way out. We've taken a shortcut. We ask your forgiveness this morning for the shortcuts we've taken. And we ask for the resolve to walk the straight road, even though it's slower, harder, and less impressive from the outside. We want to arrive at the life you have for us. And we know that road doesn't bend. So help us today, in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

All right, gentlemen, you've heard God's word. Now go live it. Lead well, stand strong, honor God in everything you do. Share this devotional with another brother. Remember, every day is another opportunity to man up.