Today’s guest writer is Ivan Bezzant, Pastor of Hutt City Salvation Army. Ivan is passionate about seeing men reaching their potential in God and making a difference in their communities. He’s been a popular PK speaker and long-time supporter of PK.
As we face outwards into our world today – our world is impacted when we know who, and whose, we are. God calls us to be men who are leaders and who will make a difference in the world but too many men feel broken, lost, alone and unfulfilled. So many men carry pain which leads to outer worlds that reflect their troubled inner lives.
As I speak with men, I get a strong sense that many do not believe they have much to offer. They feel unworthy and unimportant. They don’t see what God sees.
The result can be that they will try to hide from who they see themselves to be. Some hide through their work, some go searching for wealth. Some seek pleasure, some hide through alcohol and drug abuse. Sexual perversion or bondage to pornography become the hiding places for some men. For others, it is uncontrolled anger. You will know what it is for you! And all the while, this ordinary man is feeling so far away from doing extraordinary things.
Is there an answer? Yes, and it lies in developing a healthy identity.
For a man to stop hiding and settle the question of who he really is, some key foundational stones must be laid in the belief system of his life:
- I am a person of value and it does matter that I am alive. God does not create junk. We are all men of value, and it does matter what and who I am today.
- God knows me. He has a plan for my life. I am here to serve Him.
- I am placed here at this point in time by God to serve His plan for my generation. There is purpose to my life. There is a reason for my life today.
These foundation stones are God’s words of absolute truth for each of us.
But how does a man lay this solid foundation and believe God’s truth when he feels so differently about himself? The thing to remember is that ‘what we keep before us is what we will become’. I’m a great believer that life follows our expectations of it. I personally suffered from identity issues which created pain in my life and the world in which I lived. To change that, I practised these foundational truths listed above, by reciting them, keeping them before me. ‘Practise makes permanence’, I was told. Practise something often and it will become permanent in your life. Regularly reciting the above truths and building relationships with other men who reinforced these truths, transformed my inner world and impacted my outer world.
We all need to take self-governance seriously. That is, to take hold of yourself by using your will - to surrender your life to Christ, receive the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and change your inner messages through the above foundational stones. Find support from men that you see living out these truths in their lives and with energy and commitment pursue a different life. Your future is determined by the outworking of these truths.
How about taking the challenge and practising these three foundation stones for a healthy identity? God longs to see you do what He says you can do and be who He says you can be.
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Psalm 51:6
Blessings
Ivan Bezzant