We don’t realize it but we make many of our decisions out of fear, especially men. We don’t necessarily feel afraid, we’re now sitting in the corner balled up biting our nails, we don’t have chills running down our spine, but we have let fear constrict our willingness to stand on God’s promises because of fear associated with responsibility.

Responsibility, that’s mostly a good thing but it can cause us to limit our interaction with God. This, of course, applies to women but I feel it on my heart to talk to men this week.

My man, you’re doing a good job — you’re paying your bills, you’re trying to be a good dad, you’re treating your wife as lovingly as you can, you’re working at your job to make your boss happy so you can have a shot at that promotion, you’re voting for the right issues, you’re trying to take care of your body, you’re investing for your children’s future, and so on. There’s only one problem with all that, God isn’t in that “list.”

In fact, the last thing men want is more responsibility. Unfortunately, men try to go to church and get another list of rules. They’re pressured into serving and being made to feel like their love for sports or fishing gets in the way of living for God. It’s no wonder male church attendance has declined.

But men, I have a few more things to say. Many of us feel like we don’t have time for church, which is fine, but do you have time for God?

When you’re making your budget, or you’re pondering your job and how you can make more money, or when you’re thinking about your kids, do you leave some time to get God’s heart on the matter? Do you take time to find a passage in scripture that relates to your specific areas of responsibility in life?

Jesus said “pay attention to the word you hear.” That doesn’t mean listen really hard, that means attend to it. If you have a garden, you don’t pay attention to it by looking at it, you get your hands dirty by tilling the soil, watering the seeds, eradicating pests and uprooting invasive plant species.

“Paying attention” to the word of God that you plant in your heart means you need to make sure you’re watering it. Stay in faith. Make sure you are thinking how God thinks about your life. Pray and meditate, include God’s logic in your thought processes. Change the way you’re thinking about your circumstances and see God’s possibilities and promises.

Paying attention has more to do with the meditation of your heart than the function of your ears or eyes.

From Expositor’s Greek Testament

There shall be given over and above, not to those who hear (T. R., τοῖς ἀκούουσιν), but to those who think on what they hear. This thought introduces Mark 4:25, which, in this connection, means: the more a man thinks the more he will understand, and the less a man thinks the less his power of understanding will become. “Whoso hath attention, knowledge will be given to him, and from him who hath not, the seed of knowledge will be taken. For as diligence causes that seed to grow, negligence destroys it,” Euthy.

George Washington Carver is credited with saving the agricultural economy of the rural South. From his work at Tuskegee, Carver developed approximately 300 products made from peanuts; these included: flour, paste, insulation, paper, wall board, wood stains, soap, shaving cream and skin lotion. Carver is also credited with the innovation of crop rotation.

Cotton was the primary crop in the South in the early 1900’s but cotton depleted the soil. Carver knew that peanuts replenished soil and tried to convince his constituents to plant a harvest of peanuts in between cotton yields so the cotton harvest would be more bountiful. The only problem, peanuts were not a profitable crop, which led George Washington Carver to the woods. Why the woods?

All my life, I have risen regularly at four in the morning to go into the woods and talk with God. That’s where He reveals His secrets to me. When everybody else is asleep, I hear God best and learn my plan… ~ George Washington Carver