Hunkering down<\/em>\u2026is an interesting expression. It is more related to males than females in my experience. To hunker down<\/em> is \u2018to stay in a place for a period of time\u2019, \u2018to seek shelter\u2019, maybe in a violent storm or heavy winds. When I was a child, our family had a storm shelter to store canned foods, but also to \u2018hunker down\u2019 during incoming tornadoes. Staying low in a foxhole during intense enemy fire would be another example. But it also is used figuratively as one who squats down on their heels or some object like a chair, or the pavement; just to watch the world, or whatever, go by.<\/p>\n Many of us men try to resolve all our problems and hide our weaknesses by \u2018hunkering down\u2019 with great resolve. \u2018If I just dig in, maybe this will pass, or I\u2019ll do better in the future.\u2019 Most try to solve their problems alone, even Christians. Rarely ever works! Usually ends up getting worse. There is certainly nothing wrong with \u2018digging in\u2019 and holding things together when it is required.<\/p>\n But the idea of men, dads just \u2018hunkering down\u2019, going it alone in their man cave<\/em>, trying to fulfill their role as the servant leader in their home usually leads to pride. \u2018I can do this!\u2019 \u2018Bring it on!\u2019 \u2018Isn\u2019t that what a real man does?\u2019<\/p>\n This week I was invited along with numerous other men to an event hosted by Jim Beckett. The speaker, Steve Arterburn, founder of New Life Ministries, was sharing about the pride in men that most of us don\u2019t realize we\u2019re projecting or acting out. Recently, his wife said to him; \u2018Steve, you men need to stop hunkering down; instead, you need to humble down<\/em>.\u2019 It really struck me to the core. My consistent prayer for myself has been that God would replace the pride in my life with Christlike humility.<\/p>\n But, as I was sitting there, it occurred to me that while I may be praying for God to do that, he actually was by allowing issues into my life that would be useful in creating that transformation. But as I reflected, I believe I have been hunkering down and trying to accomplish this without the Spirit\u2019s enabling power. Humbling down is truly the answer. God provides the grace to be humble; to respond properly to whatever I encounter that doesn\u2019t fit into my plan or displeases me. Can you relate to this? \u201cGod opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble\u201d<\/strong> <\/em>(Jas. 4.6b NLT). Who in their right mind would want to go up against God? But our pride does just that.<\/p>\n Jesus faced issues, especially in is last days that most of us men would have fought against, with all our resources. But he didn\u2019t. Paul points us to the true example of humility. \u201cYou must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal\u2019s death on a cross\u201d<\/strong><\/em> (Phil. 2. 5-8 NLT)<\/p>\n Husbands\/dads, want to reflect Christ\u2019s image to your wife and children? Well, let\u2019s start today to humble down!<\/strong><\/em> I didn\u2019t say it would be easy or happen overnight, but we both know his grace will be sufficient for us. He is more interested in our pursuit of Christlike humility than perfecting it. O, I forgot, just a reminder; Jesus\u2019 Father has highly exalted him as a result of his humble obedience. Just saying!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prideful thinking Hunkering down\u2026is an interesting expression. It is more related to males than females in my experience. To hunker down is \u2018to stay in a place for a period of time\u2019, \u2018to seek shelter\u2019, maybe in a violent storm or heavy winds. When I was a child, our family had a storm shelter to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,64,67],"tags":[109,61,55,63,70],"class_list":["post-2421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-absent","category-mentoring","category-role","tag-authority","tag-bcd","tag-brokenness","tag-discipleship","tag-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Humble down<\/h3>\n
Pursue Christlike humility<\/h3>\n