ManUp Moment - Jay Cookingham

The blessed life is all about knowing God, about having a relationship with Him that is so deep that it doesn’t matter if He blesses us or not.

Do you ever wonder… What will it take for revival to come?

Could it be… that the moment we’re “stuck in” is the exact moment God is teaching His greatest lesson.

What does victory look like when life is full of pain and hardship? When death stings? (and it does). When the words of the worship songs we sing don’t feel true… When stories of miracle and healings conflict with stories of horrible loss?

I feel there is something far greater at stake than electing a President soon. It comes to me in the form of a question… Who will hold your heart after the election?

I’m sure most all of us have heard this once or twice before and normally… this wasn’t a compliment was it? But as sons and daughters of God I think we’re called to live a life… full of IT… and that IT stands for Intentional Thankfulness.

Have you ever felt restless? Unsettled… but you didn’t know why?

Spiritual hunger is a huge invitation to experience God in a deeper, fulfilling way.

You are what you eat… so what you consume not only fills you but also FORMS you. It forms what you look like, how healthy you are, your mobility, you ability to think and how you live. And believe it or not, it’s the same with our spiritual diet.

My speech, my actions and the way I love my family, my community… all should invite questions… and I should be prepared to answer them.

Failure is not an option but I know it often feels like the only one. In reality, failure is simply an opportunity to try again.

Focus is spiritual traction, our sure footing when we concentrate on God’s ways instead of our own. Our focus needs to be fierce because the fight will be. The struggle against the kingdom of darkness is very real. What do we focus on?

God’s Word encourages us to cast off the weight… the past, the trauma, and the things that lie to who we are in Christ.

The Greek word for anxious comes from a root word meaning… to go to pieces. Ever felt that way? I don’t think having anxiety is not a lack of faith or a sin. But it is a peace stealer, one that makes our faith journey difficult at times… but how do we pick up the pieces?

There are brothers, men who need our friendship who are loss and confused about who they are. They need brothers who will risk comfort, money, and respect…whatever it takes to bring them the truth about who Jesus is.

We take up the FULL armor… we gear up! We use everything that is available to us, because partial armor is not good enough!

In case you couldn’t tell… We fight against a desperate, very intentional, strategically devious enemy! We need to be watchful!

Throughout Scripture God reveals our sonship, God affirms our sonship and God confirms our sonship.

Walking is more than a way of getting from one place to another. In the Bible, walking is symbolic of relationship with someone.

The wrong agreements can be prodigal thoughts, ones that lead us away for the Father.

Look for ways to invest yourself in NOW moments that will outlive you. Make every breath matter, engage every moment with an eternity mindset, and allow the past to remind us of God’s goodness and nothing else.

How do we stir good works up in each other?

How we respond to pain tells us how we’ll respond to our purpose! Will we back down, shy away or run away because the pain is too great.

The recent Gillette razor ad about toxic masculinity misses the point about men and toxic actions on so many fronts. Toxic behavior is not determined by gender, male babies aren’t born toxic anymore than female ones are. The common toxic pollutant of human behavior is not gender, but sin. The world is full of people who do toxic things because of sin! The Bible reminds us.

I have found in my own life that the removal of idols is messy, painful business.