Author: admin

Leadership involves power. It is about having the ability to influence people to accomplish your purposes. There are people with great ideas that never see the light of day. That’s because the dreamers cannot influence people with power to bring their vision to fruition.

The king has power. His word is law. The challenge for people is to know how to influence the king without losing their head! Some employees are continually experiencing conflict with their boss. They are constantly finding themselves in hot water. Rather than gaining their boss’s favor, they say things that offend.

Wise people do not resort to manipulation or deception, but they do recognize where the “power” in their organization is and they learn how to influence it for good. Astute employees gain the king’s favor by serving with integrity and efficiency. They handle themselves well and thus, become people of influence who get things done.

God created people to be righteous. But our heads are continually being filled with schemes and plots. Even as the wily serpent pervaded the minds of Adam and Eve with the possibility of becoming like God, so our thoughts regularly focus on doing, becoming, and experiencing that which God has forbidden.

We glorify God when we live as God designed us to. We honor Him when we are content with what God has given us. Yet inevitably we grow dissatisfied. We come to believe we ought to have more than God granted us. Rather than meditating on God’s word, we scheme to “get ahead” and enjoy “the good life.”

Some people become consumed with plotting how they can achieve what they desire. Rather than spending time with God and His word, they obsess with their own plans. What is occupying your thoughts?

A multitude knows “what.” A handful understands “why.” There are many people who are satisfied with this. They don’t search for answers or understanding. They are subjected to the vacillating winds of fate without ever comprehending why certain events in their life take place.

In contrast, there are people who are determined to understand their life. They refuse to merely be victims, but to learn to recognize the ebb and flow of life. Such people reflect on their experiences. They seek God’s counsel. They study Scripture. They ask questions. For them, simplistic answers are unacceptable. As a result, they gain wisdom.

There is much that happens in life that is evil, painful, and bewildering. It can make life daunting. Yet God is willing to grant us a certain level of understanding of some of life’s most horrific events, if we are willing to seek His answers.

Everyone would be wise, if it was easy! But there is a huge discrepancy between our desire to be wise and wisdom itself. Only those who are willing to pay the required price will bridge that gap.

Some people want an education but they don’t want to go to school. Others want money, but they are unwilling to work. Some want knowledge, but they hate to read. In life, there is always a price involved to acquire objects of value.

For some people, the journey to wisdom is daunting. They look at how much effort lies before them and they grow discouraged. It seems like becoming the man or woman God intends them to be will take too long and too much work. Yet, as in every great journey, we must focus on the next step, not the distant destination. If we keep faithfully doing the next thing, we will one day achieve all God intends for us. Some of God’s greatest treasures laid aside for us may seem far away today. But they won’t always be, if we will do all we know to do, today.

Leadership is not for the thin skinned! While it holds numerous privileges, it also subjects people to increased pressures and criticisms.

There will always be armchair critics. These are people who do not pay the price of leadership themselves, but they are quick to evaluate and criticize what leaders around them are doing

If you are overly concerned with peoples’ opinions, you will inevitably be hurt and distracted by them. You may have worked hard and made great sacrifices for your organization. Then you overhear someone criticizing your effort or second-guessing your motives. That can be devastating.

To guard yourself, you must be sure you do not place too much weight on peoples’ opinions. For people will inevitably disappoint and criticize you. Learn to expect it. Don’t let peoples’ praise be the reward you seek. For it is elusive. Be certain you are faithfully doing God’s will then take everything you hear from people with a grain of salt.

When God allows us to have an amazing day, we assume it is because He loves us. But when we experience adversity, we become confused. How could a loving God allow us to suffer like that? Why isn’t He protecting us from harm?

The truth is that God has a purpose both for our pleasure as well as our pain. There are certain works He will accomplish in our life using each one. The key is for us to recognize which season we are in, and then to embrace whatever work God wants to accomplish at that time.

In days of prosperity, we need to celebrate and enjoy God’s goodness to us. Too often we are so busy that we miss those special moments God provides us to experience joy. Likewise, when adversity comes, we need to take time to reflect. Without carefully considering our circumstances, we might miss the good work God is doing, even in our discomfort. We should assume that even in our challenges, God has a good purpose. If you are currently experiencing a trial, carefully consider what God is seeking to accomplish through them.

God is sovereign! He will accomplish His purposes! It is foolish to strive against what God is doing.

Some people in churches habitually resist God’s activity. God is clearly moving to bring teenagers into the church, or to minister to immigrants or the poor, yet these misguided saints are opposed. It will cost too much, it will make a mess, it is not in the ten-year plan, they have never done it that way before! So they resist.

Other people do not like God’s will for their life, so they dig in their heels. Perhaps God allowed them to lose their job. Or maybe their struggling teenage child requires more of their time. Yet these people resent the life God has granted them. They refuse to make the necessary adjustments. They angrily wait for God to return their life to the way it used to be.

The truth is that no one can change what God is doing, regardless of how fervently they try. A battle of wills with God is supremely futile. The wise person humbly accepts God’s will and adjusts their life accordingly. They astutely refuse to waste time on what cannot be altered and instead, they make the necessary adjustments in their life so they can embrace God’s activity around them. Some people spend most of their life resisting what God has done. What a waste!

There is no better protection for your life than wisdom. You might install a security system, a protection program, even a vicious guard dog, but the best protection for your life is to accumulate wisdom.

Wisdom comes first and foremost from fearing God. By fearing God we heed His voice. By following divine directives, we avoid numerous pitfalls.

There are many dangers you may face as a leader. You will encounter decisions that can bring you and your organization tumbling down to disaster if you make the wrong one. You must have wisdom. There will be people who could bring your organization tumbling down, who will seek to become your close aids. In gathering advisers around you, you must have wisdom. There will be crises that inevitably come, but the way you respond to them can mean success or failure, you must have wisdom.

At times we can invest great amount of time and money to protect ourselves and yet neglect to gather wisdom. Without it, no amount of security can adequately protect you.

One of the greatest challenges of our life stems from our unwillingness to trust God and his timing. When we sense something should be done, we want it to happen now! We can grow frustrated, even angry, when things do not go the way we think they should.

If someone offends us, we want to see them experience just retribution immediately. If someone proposes a plan contrary to our own, we want to ensure that people soon recognize the brilliance of our plan and the foolishness of theirs. If we feel that we should undertake a certain task, we become agitated when people or circumstances delay our progress.

But becoming angry at others reflects our lack of belief in God. For if we truly believed God was sovereign over the affairs of people, then we would trust completely in His timing. God in His grace, often is not in a hurry to mete out judgment as we would like Him to be! (at least with others). When we sense what God’s will is for our life, we can often be impatient for Him to accomplish it. But our impatience is a sign of a lack of faith. If we truly believed God loved us, we would trust that His timing is an expression of His love also.

How does your patience, as well as your anger, reflect on your faith in God?

Make no mistake; how we begin something has enormous ramifications on how we conclude. However, how we begin something matters not if we do not end well.

It is much easier to begin something than it is to bring that project to a proper conclusion. Beginnings don’t always require great effort or cost. Perseverance and determination are not prerequisite to commencements. They are, however,crucial for completions. While the launching of something new is often met with fanfare and enthusiasm, the often, laborious effort to bring it to completion attracts far less attention from others.

Yet the measure of someone’s life is not so much in how many things you began, but how many things you completed. True satisfaction is coming to the end of a project and seeing your dream become a reality! At times we celebrate prematurely. Genuine celebration is not at the launching, but at the completion of a major effort. Do you have as many successful endings as you have exuberant beginnings?