Hey listeners and welcome back to the Men of Valor Podcast. The verse for today is Proverbs three verse three - and it says "never let loyalty and kindness leave you tie them around your neck as a reminder write them deep within your heart."

"Write them deep inside your heart."

I’ve been talking about this verse with our kids and I've come to realize that it's not just talking about being kind like saying you know ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ or not fighting with a sibling. It's not just talking about loyalty that you would see with someone sticking with a sports team or or even listening to their parents. No the verse is talking about remembering who we are and what God has done for us and really just remaining humble. For the word kindness other versions of the verse use the words love, mercy or grace and for loyalty you can substitute the words faithfulness or truth. These are very powerful words and so the proverb says never let them leave you never forsake them or another way to say it is never let these things become unimportant to you. Tie them around your neck because the day can get busy and it's easy to forget, it's easy to live and do and be without these things. These things are so important that it says to write them deep inside your heart.

"No one is truly a self made person."

So what are these words really, what does the proverb mean for us? It can all be summed up in one simple truth to live by - we do not make ourselves. No one is truly a self made person. Every success, every good thing we have or have done, all of who we are even to this very moment, all of it. No one can say it was me. I did it from the start to the finish by myself. Even the most successful people you will see them turn to thank a parent a professor a mentor or some kind of outside influence. When they give their speech and accept the reward right they say I would never have been able to do this if it weren't for so and so. They are speaking the truth and they're giving credit where it's due. But God wants something more than just words more than something we can do today but maybe not tomorrow he wants it to be how we live because that truth is deep inside of us. As the proverb says do not let this truth leave you.

For us men is a call to never forget who we are and how we got here. Do not say in your heart that you got the job, do not live your life thinking that you alone are responsible for graduating with a degree or getting married or whatever it is. Remember that it was God who in His goodness orchestrated your life and arranged for you to be born, to grow, and to live all the way up to this very moment. We must remain loyal to this truth and never forget it. It's how we will remain humble before God who sees all and who even knows what we have written deep inside of our hearts.

"Remember that it was God who orchestrated your life."

The very next verse gives the outcome of the proverb, if you follow it. It says if you do these things then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Kindness and loyalty, love and faithfulness, grace and truth...if we do not let them go that is when our words will be kind to others, we will be true to the sports team or or to the job or the boss, we will be able to treat others as better than ourselves and we'll be able to fulfill the second greatest commandment “love your neighbor as yourself.” Then even if you are the most successful person you'll be able to look at anyone through the eyes of truth and say there goes my neighbor or my brother or my sister.

So men I pray today that the favor of God would be yours, I pray that we would gain a good name with our fellow man as we keep this truth around our necks. Join with me as I pray and ask: God open our eyes to your wisdom, thank you God for your goodness towards us thank you for showing us how to be close to you. God I pray that you would get all the credit for our lives. We declare today that we are not self made man but children of God and we owe someone else. God thank you thank you for the mentors for the parent or the grandparent for the boss or the teacher Lord we recognize them as you God and that there isn't any good thing in our lives that is not from you. So God we give you the praise today and I just bless all the listeners in mighty name Jesus amen.