The Power of a Good Word

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 0:26

It's Friday, the final episode of this week of the Men's Morning Devotional Podcast, where we continue to talk about Proverbs chapter 12. My name is Chris Alesian. I want to thank you for being a part of this week with us. Uh we only get kind of a week with you at a time, but I know my brother-in-laws are coming up next and they're going to do a great job in the coming weeks. Again, this is a great opportunity to close out the week by sharing this with somebody. Maybe you've heard me say this a few times already this week and you haven't done it. Hey, now's a great time. Just go ahead, quickly pause it, and do it. And I think this is going to be a good one to share because I want to close out the week looking at Proverbs 12, 25. And we'll close out the week with the man up moment. Somewhere in your world right now, a man is weighed down and waiting for a word you haven't said to him yet. Now, before we get all emotional, look at Proverbs 12, 25. Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. I was talking to some friends the other day about that word anxiety and how I think we should just completely eradicate it from our vocabulary, from our vernacular, from the dictionary. We got to get rid of it. Because the more we talk about it, the more we seem to feel it. And Solomon seems to already know that. He opens this verse with a picture that we all know from the inside, being weighed down. In the original Hebrew, the word used to describe it meant to kind of be pressed low or to be bent under something heavy. We've all been there on the inside, where we've had to kind of fake it until we make it, you know, where we're feeling pressed down or to be bent under something heavy. And we just call that, you know, anxiety or depression or whatever it is. We've all felt shrunken, like a shrunken version of ourselves. But then this verse says that a good word can make that same man glad. Not some big counseling session, although there's value to that. Not having a solution to every problem, although that's what us men were made for, but a good word. One intentional, well-placed, genuinely meant word from another man, and it just begins to lift what anxiety has been pressing down. Isn't it interesting how Solomon is telling you that you have more power over another man's inner life than you think? And we're massively underusing that power. If you could speak a good word to another man and lift the inside of him, if you knew you had that power, how would you use it? Because here's what I've seen at our church, here's what I've seen in life. Men are often carrying a lot more than we like to show. You know, my dad likes to call it a certain I'm fine lie. We joke that women have never been honest when they've said, I'm fine, but the truth is what makes it a joke is that it's not just women. No man has ever been telling the truth when he says, I'm fine. The funniest guy in the group can be the guy lying awake at 2 a.m. The guy who's killing it at work could be the guy who's avoiding going home because his marriage is struggling. We can all be pressed down or bent under the weight of something. We do our best really to not show it. All men can have a lot of strength on the outside and yet be feeling like on the inside they're being pressed down. So I think our man-up challenge for today is to actually speak a good word over somebody, a well-intentioned, true word, words that bring healing. We're planning peace in the life of a man. We've become rooted in our own life, and now we can bring peace through our words to others. But before we close out, I actually want to lead by example and speak a good word over you. Men, you showed up at least today to listen to this podcast, or maybe all week. Maybe you've been listening for a month. That's not nothing. If you've listened today or all month, you're serious about growing as a man. So I want you to know the root work you're doing, even when no one sees it, is seen by heaven. And even if the surface of your life doesn't reflect it yet, it will. It matters. God sees the work you're doing, and it's producing something that will hold you when your life gets hard. Man, listen to me. You are not behind, you are not too late, you are not too far gone. You're a man that God is building, a man that God has forgiven and redeemed. And the fact that you're here, listening, leaning in, tells me everything I need to know about where you're headed. You are going in the direction the Lord has called you to go. Now go and share a word like this with another man. Let's pray. Father, open our eyes to the men around us that need a good word from us. Give us a spiritual awareness to speak a good word into them. Maybe it's our dad, our best friend, our sons, our wives. Let us be men that know how to speak a good word to lift the heart of the people around us. In Jesus' name, amen.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

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. It's a man up.