Rooted Against the Storm

SPEAKER_01 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 0:26

Good morning and welcome back to the men's morning devotional. My name is Chris Alesi, and we're looking at Proverbs 12 today as we continue to talk about the type of man that we should be. Now, this is a very rich chapter, Proverbs chapter 12. We're going to hit six verses over the next five days as we continue to paint the type of man God is calling you to be. Before a man can lead well at work, speak well at home, or lift the people around him, that man has to be rooted. And so here's our man up moment for today. A man can look stable for years and still have no root. The storm will tell the truth. We're looking at Proverbs 12, verse 3. It says, No one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved. I really like those words. Established and the root. Solomon seems to put two different men side by side. There's one that's trying to establish himself, to build his life, his reputation, his legacy, but he's trying to do it on the wrong foundation. And this is where it's really interesting to see even Jesus when he presents building your house, he just kind of gives these two options. Meaning, if it's not on him, then it's on the wrong thing. It's not like there's many options. There's really two. On God or not, the right foundation or not. And the interesting thing is it says about the righteous man, it says that his root will never be moved. The contrast between these two men isn't talent, luck, effort, or opportunity. It's about what's underneath. I really like focusing on that word established because it's what every man wants. We want our families, our work, all of that to be established. We want to become established. We say it in sports, we kind of use this mafioso term. He's a made man, he's established. We all want that. But Solomon says you can't build it on wickedness. And I know you're thinking, of course, I'm not a wicked guy. But in this reference, wickedness is not like the bad option. It's just the non-God option. Anything that's not building the foundation of righteousness is wickedness. Which means if we're building on anything except righteousness, we're in the wrong camp here. And we don't have the root. According to the scripture, anything that's not built on righteousness is actually it's got instability baked into its own foundation. But the righteous man's root, by contrast, will never be moved. Solomon doesn't say his circumstance won't move or that life won't hit him hard. He just says the root holds. A tree can lose branches in a storm and still survive because the root system underneath is deeper than the storm can reach. And look, I've actually seen this myself. We've grown turmeric and ginger up at our farm, and I can't believe how there's so much green above the ground, and we can cut all the green down, but that root is still going, still surviving. That's the kind of man we can be. Not a man that doesn't have to deal with pressure or storms, but a man whose root is so deep that that pressure can't move us. So how do our roots grow? Man, if you are currently not where you want to be in life, but you're remaining faithful anyways, you're growing the root. That's righteousness. The root is built in the quiet season. In the daily choices, nobody sees and nobody celebrates. It's in the years of faithfulness before the storm even comes. The time to build your root system is right now. So, man, your man up challenge is how can you be faithful today? How can you be righteous today? Honestly assess your root system, not the visible life, the hidden life, your prayer life, your integrity, your faithfulness in the small things. Because that's what will hold you in the storm. Let's pray. Father, I want to be a man whose root cannot be moved, and that's the kind of men we want to be. Build something in us that goes deeper than our circumstances, deeper than our pressures, and deeper than the storm. Let our foundations be rooted in you. In Jesus' name, amen.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

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.