Iron & Fire — Reflections on Biblical Manhood
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” — Psalm 119:11 (KJV)
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time lately thinking about what it really means to be a godly man. Not simply a good husband, a responsible father, a dependable employee, or someone who attends church faithfully. Those things certainly matter, but I’ve come to believe that a man can fulfill many of those responsibilities and still have areas of his spiritual life that desperately need attention.
We often measure a man’s strength by what he can accomplish, what he can endure, and how well he handles the responsibilities placed upon him. We admire men who work hard, provide for their families, and remain composed when life becomes difficult. But I wonder how often we stop to consider what is supporting that strength.
What happens when the responsibilities become overwhelming? What happens when the answers aren’t obvious, the finances become strained, or the circumstances of life begin testing everything we thought we believed?
I believe those moments reveal something important about the foundation upon which we’ve built our lives.
A Foundation That Begins With Surrender
In Luke 9:23, Jesus said:
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
I’ve thought about that word daily quite a bit. As men, we like to believe we’re capable of handling whatever comes our way. We make plans, establish goals, and work toward building a better future for ourselves and our families. There’s nothing inherently wrong with those things. The problem begins when we become so confident in our own abilities that we forget our dependence upon Jesus Christ.
Surrender is difficult because it requires us to acknowledge that we don’t control everything. Sometimes pride prevents us from admitting that. Other times, it’s fear. We worry about what might happen if we loosen our grip on the things we’ve worked so hard to maintain.
Yet Jesus never called us to follow Him only when life was manageable. He called us to follow Him daily.
That means our commitment to Him must extend beyond the church pew and into our homes, our workplaces, our conversations, and the decisions nobody else sees.
A man cannot build a life firmly grounded in Jesus while insisting on remaining in complete control of it.
A Foundation That Requires a Response
There’s another passage that I believe belongs in any conversation about becoming grounded in Christ.
In Acts chapter 2, Peter preached the gospel to a crowd gathered in Jerusalem. When the people heard his message, Scripture tells us they were pricked in their hearts. They recognized the seriousness of what Peter had preached and asked a simple but powerful question.
“Men and brethren, what shall we do?” — Acts 2:37
I find that question particularly meaningful because it demonstrates something we sometimes overlook. Hearing the truth and recognizing our need for change are not the same as responding to that truth.
Peter answered their question in Acts 2:38 by instructing them to repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
This wasn’t a message about improving their public image or developing better habits through determination alone. It was a call to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I believe we need to remember that distinction.
We can become better at managing our schedules, controlling our spending, communicating with our families, and fulfilling our responsibilities. Those improvements are worthwhile, but they cannot take the place of a genuine relationship with Jesus.
And for those of us who have already responded to the gospel, our relationship with Him cannot remain anchored only to something that happened years ago.
We must continue walking with Him.
A Foundation Strengthened by God’s Word
Psalm 119:11 says:
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
We live in a world where information is constantly competing for our attention. We can spend hours reading the news, watching videos, following sports, or scrolling through social media, yet somehow struggle to find time to open our Bibles.
I’ve had to examine my own priorities in this area.
It’s easy to say that God’s Word is important. It’s another thing entirely to allow Scripture to influence how we actually live.
I believe one of the greatest dangers facing Christian men today is becoming familiar with the language of Christianity without developing a deep understanding of the Word of God.
We can recognize familiar verses, remember powerful sermons, and participate in conversations about spiritual matters. But are we allowing Scripture to examine our own hearts?
Do we approach the Bible looking for reasons to justify what we already believe, or are we willing to let God’s Word correct us when necessary?
A foundation built upon Scripture requires humility. It requires us to study, ask questions, consider the context of what we’re reading, and be willing to change when God’s Word confronts something in our lives.
It also requires consistency.
Prayer, studying Scripture, and the discipline of fasting help us direct our attention toward Jesus rather than continually allowing the demands and desires of everyday life to determine our priorities.
These practices aren’t about creating an impressive spiritual reputation. They’re about developing a relationship with the Lord that continues growing even when nobody else is watching.
A Foundation That Can Carry the Weight
There’s one final passage that brings these thoughts together for me.
In Matthew 11:28, Jesus extends an invitation:
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
I wonder how many men need to hear those words today.
We carry responsibilities that don’t disappear when we leave work. We worry about our families, our finances, our futures, and the decisions we’ve made along the way. Sometimes we become so accustomed to carrying those burdens that we begin believing exhaustion is simply part of being a man.
But Jesus invites us to something different.
He doesn’t promise that following Him will eliminate every difficulty. He doesn’t tell us that we’ll never experience disappointment, uncertainty, or hardship. Instead, He invites us to come to Him, take His yoke upon us, and learn from Him.
There’s an important difference between finding rest in Jesus and withdrawing from the responsibilities He’s entrusted to us.
Being grounded in Christ doesn’t mean life becomes easy. It means our lives are no longer built entirely upon our ability to keep everything together.
We learn to work faithfully without allowing our accomplishments to define us. We learn to lead our families without believing we must control every outcome. And we learn to acknowledge our weaknesses without allowing those weaknesses to convince us that we cannot continue growing in the Lord.
What Are We Building Upon?
As I’ve been working on Iron & Fire, a thirty-day devotional for men, I’ve found myself returning to these questions repeatedly.
What does it mean to become the man Jesus has called us to be? How do we develop spiritual strength that goes beyond appearances? And perhaps most importantly, what happens when the circumstances of life begin testing the foundation we’ve established?
I’ve come to believe that biblical manhood doesn’t begin with becoming stronger in the eyes of the world. It begins with becoming more surrendered to Jesus Christ.
Before we can effectively lead others, we must be willing to follow Him. Before we can stand firmly upon biblical truth, we must allow that truth to shape our own lives. And before we can carry the responsibilities placed before us faithfully, we must recognize our dependence upon the One who has called us.
That is what being grounded means to me.
Not perfection. Not a life without struggles. Not the appearance of having everything figured out.
But a man who is continually learning to surrender, obey, study, pray, and trust Jesus Christ through every season of life.
Because when the storms come, and they certainly will, the question won’t be how impressive our lives appeared to everyone watching.
The question will be what we were standing upon when everything around us began to shake.
— Jack Sauceman
This reflection is inspired by Grounded, the opening section of my upcoming book, Iron & Fire: A 30-Day Devotional for Men.
