51 “You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also. (Acts 7:51 CSB)

Stiff-neck, red-neck, I can be called both, and probably many other things.

As it pertains to God I have often been stiff-necked. I have been unwilling or unable to change myself often through the years. I have allowed my desires to rise above God’s and not fulfilled the plan He had for my life.

Some, maybe much, of this comes from my small town, red-neck ways. I am proud and stubborn. I can be a gruff and hard man and I must work daily to keep myself from being who I am down deep.

But luckily, there is a soft and humble side of me as well. A part that is more measured and deeply spiritual. I have always striven to be a man that carries a deep faith lightly. Never wanting to be seen as overbearing, but always wanting to be unwavering in my beliefs.

Those of us who are stiff-necked and strong-willed must strike a balance in life. Between our nature and God’s desires for the path he wants us to follow. He made us and is strong enough to deal with our stiff-necked ways and even use that to His advantage.

Ours is not to resist the Holy Spirit.