On being a real man (Hebrews 7:25) is to rely on Jesus as priest, with an interesting story about a stolen car and the police's search for the thief.

SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 7:24-25 (TM)

But Jesus' priesthood is permanent. He's there from now to eternity to save everyone who comes to God through him, always on the job to speak up for them.

STORY:

In 1981, a Minnesota radio station reported a story about a stolen car in California. Police were staging an intense search for the vehicle and the driver, even to the point of placing announcements on local radio stations to contact the thief. On the front seat of the stolen car sat a box of crackers that, unknown to the thief, were laced with poison. The car owner had intended to use the crackers as rat bait. Now the police and the owner of the VW Bug were more interested in apprehending the thief to save his life than to recover the car. So often when we run from God, we feel it is to escape his punishment. But what we are actually doing is eluding his rescue.

OBSERVATION:

Are we running away from God or towards him? By our denial of God are we not stating as clearly as possible our need for him?

Most of us do not like the feeling of being dependent on others. Oh, we are often quick to do for others. To go out of our way to help someone in need, but to admit that we ourselves might need something is a difficult step to take. We were raised to be self-sufficient … self-reliant and unfortunately that runs counter to the way God has designed life to be lived.

The strongest person I know is the one who states that he or she cannot go through life without God. That is not a statement of weakness but of strength. It takes great courage to place ones trust on God … to admit that we need God from day to day.

We have been trained from the earliest age, especially men, to be the strong one, to have all the answers, to be “Mr.-fix-it,” to be the protector, not to show our weakness … and so, for men especially, coming to Christ has the feeling of running against our very nature. In so doing, we are denying our natural state and we are walking away from being the real person God has created us to be.

It is not a sign of weakness but of strength. Show me a person who turns to God and I will show you a real man!

PRAYER:

We want to be real. We want to be our own person. Help us realize to fulfill that goal, we have to turn towards you and place our entire trust on you … and then we will be free to be who you have created us to be.