✝️ Are You Making Time For What Matters Most?

Good morning, brothers - As men, we know that how we spend our time is a reflection of our priorities.  As Christians, we often say Jesus is our priority but then choose to spend little time with him on a personal level. Today, we’ll walk through ways we can live daily with Jesus as our priority, both in word and action. Let’s go!

This week’s manly topics (6-min read):

⛑️ MIND SET We often get overwhelmed trying to attend to all of our “priorities” but are all of these priorities of equal value? Is it time to reprioritize? Let’s consider.
📰  NEWS We are going to find out the best way to deal with knee pain, the best times to eat, enjoy God’s design for our lives and relationships and offer some attractiveness-boosting tips.
🎁 OFFER This week’s sponsor (the brand that taught us “if you have a body, you are an athlete”), Nike, has a special offer for snazzy Christmas kicks.

MIND SET
Are You Making Time For What Matters Most?

What Dating Teaches Us About Devotion

Do you remember when you first met your wife or girlfriend? That excitement and desire to spend every possible moment together? I sure do.

I met my wife at church and strategically positioned myself to sit near her every Sunday for months. I'd walk in right before the service started, scan the room for her, and find the closest available seat.

After months of careful maneuvering, I worked up the courage to invite her to join me and some friends for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. We did the group thing several times before I asked her on a proper date.

As we became “exclusive,” I'd meet her for lunch, bring her flowers, and text first thing every morning. I took mental notes about everything she liked and didn't like. It was impossible to spend enough time with her – I wanted to know everything about her, and the only way to do that was to invest time.

You're probably smiling right now, remembering similar moments from your own story. Those early days of romance remind us of an important truth: deep relationships only develop when we make them a priority and invest time in truly knowing the other person.

Prioritize THE Relationship

This same principle applies to our relationship with Jesus. For those of us who follow Christ, we must ask ourselves: Is our relationship with the Father truly our top priority? Are we pursuing a deeper connection with Him daily? Are we taking time to know Him better each day?

Here’s a truth to remember: God loves you more deeply than you can fathom and He desires an intimate relationship with you. You are His priority—so much so that He sent His only Son to die on the cross and rise again, taking our sins with Him to restore our relationship with the Father.

God wants a relationship and gave His very best to make that possible. I pray that the Lord ignites a fire in each of us today, rekindling our desire to know Him more intimately by showing up daily to meet Him in His word and prayer.

Jesus Made The Time

Look at Jesus’s example. Even in the busiest seasons of ministry, He prioritized time alone with the Father:

• “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16

• “One of those days, Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God.” Luke 6:12

• “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Mark 1:35

Growing deeper in our relationship with God takes intentional effort amid life’s demands. But the benefits are immense and eternal: a life characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, a life that reflects Jesus to the world, a life directed not by cultural waves or circumstances but by God’s Spirit within us.

The Lord has given us incredible gifts to nurture this relationship:

• The Bible – 66 books where we can meet Him daily, grow in our knowledge of Him, learn to trust and obey Him more fully and become more like Jesus

• Prayer – direct communication where we can share our deepest needs and desires, offer praise and thanksgiving, lift up others’ needs, and quietly listen for His voice

• The Holy Spirit – God’s presence living within us, teaching, guiding, and empowering us to live the life He’s called us to

As we grow in our knowledge of and devotion to Jesus, surrendering to His leading, we become more like Him. This is the heart of our newsletter – encouraging our “band of brothers,” this fraternity of Christian men, to grow in Christlikeness together.

Join me in committing to these four spiritual disciplines:

1. Confessing if He hasn’t been your top priority and seeking His forgiveness - Revelation 2:4-5

2. Asking Him to make knowing Him your highest priority - Psalm 42:1-2

3. Setting aside daily time for Bible reading and prayer - Psalm 119:12-16

4. Surrendering to the Holy Spirit's leading during these times, asking Him to teach you what He wants you to learn - John 16:12-15

Let's make knowing Him our first priority, brothers. Spend the time necessary because you want to, not just to check it off your “to-do” list. Everything else flows from there.

This week’s action plan:

1. Read Philippians 3:4-11 and notice Paul’s passion to know Christ

2. Meditate on Philippians 3:8-9 and ask yourself if you could say the same

3. Memorize Matthew 6:33 and determine your first priority

4. Worship as you listen to First by Lauren Daigle

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THIS JUST IN
📣 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WEB 📣 

Training
“For physical training is of some value …” 1 Timothy 4:8

• Turns out resistance training is a very effective way of reducing aging-related knee pain (aka knee osteoarthritis.) A December 2024 survey of 184 studies found that  muscle weakness is a primary cause of aged-related knee problems and that resistance training strengthens the quadriceps and hamstrings thereby increasing strength, joint stability and the range of motion while alleviating pain. Courtesy PLOS ONE

Nutrition
“… your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit …” 1 Corinthians 6:19

• The Digital Age-disconnection from the natural environment is the cause for many of the physical and psychological ills we suffer. God designed us to thrive in the context of the physical world and a central element of our design is our relationship with the 24-hour night-day cycle. Our internal clock, known as the Circadian Rhythm, optimizes our waking and sleeping function … and a major part of our waking function is eating. Here is a helpful summary of how to align your eating routine with your Circadian Rhythm for optimum fitness. Courtesy Johns Hopkins University

Relationships
“Two are better than one …” Ecclesiastes 4:9

• Perhaps no other single factor has contributed to the decline of the West over the past century as has the demonically-inspired war on the biblical concept of marriage. It's gotten so bad that even non-Christian intellects realize that God’s family plan offers a wiser, more humane and more productive arrangement than anything we’ve come up with. In this review of Conn Carroll’s Sex and the Citizen, we see a secular defense of Christian marriage and reaffirm our confidence in God’s ways and God’s Word. Courtesy WORLD News Group

Culture
“You are the salt of the earth.” Matthew 5:13

• When you think about what it means that God created us “in His image”, some part of that seems to be elements of human personality … including a sense of humor. It cannot be a coincidence that laughter has such a profound effect on our health. Check out Angel Studios Dry Bar Comedy channel for a deep and regularly updated (including live shows) library of clean comedy specials.

Style
“… whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

• God looks at your heart but the people around you can’t see your heart. They see your physical appearance … and they judge you based on what they see. Be an example of a man who is living for God’s glory by paying attention to your appearance. It's not about being vain. It's about being an attractive example of Christ’s excellence. Here are ten tips for being more attractive to the people around you. Start to apply these habits and you will start changing how you look at yourself … and everyone else will start changing how they look at you. Courtesy Real Men Real Style