What does it mean to be a man? In today’s society there is a lot of clutter surrounding what it actually means to live a genuine masculine life. It is a harsh reality that there is lot of temptation around us and these temptations have distorted the answer to this question. These struggles can often steer us away from who we were meant to be and what God has planned for us.
Jimmy reminded us that you can be close to God’s grace, but your sins against purity and chastity can deflect that grace away. He talked about his time in middle school when he was very involved in his church and a youth group, but was still struggling to have an honest relationship with God because of his daily struggles fighting temptation.
He focused on two main temptations: identifying not only too closely with our sinfulness, but also identifying too closely with our successes. This is the pride than can get in the way of us building a relationship with God. Grace, however, is always on the horizon and Jesus can conquer these sins in confession.
In the sacraments, we find God’s true love and no longer have to deal with the counterfeits of this love that often deceive us. As brothers, it is extremely important that we hold each other accountable as we work to combat these temptations. The group ended the session by reading chastity commitment cards that were passed out.
Quotables
“Sometimes we receive all the glory rather than giving it completely to God.”
“If we don’t have a prayer life, we will forget who we are.”
“If we say yes as men and become the sons and fathers that we were meant to be, we will set fire to the world.”
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