Author: admin

Passion often differentiates great leaders from mediocre ones. Passion will take leaders to amazing heights while phlegmatic leaders may trudge along with modest results. The problem with passion is its fleeting nature. It can consume us almost to bursting one moment and abandon us the next. Our passion for God’s work can be inflamed as we listen to a sermon but then be immediately deflated at the first sound of criticism.

Those whose leadership is based on passion must be prepared for a career of severe ups and downs! Because our passion is a feeling, it is grounded in our current emotions. The truth is: it is hard to be passionate about certain things. Serving without being appreciated, persevering under criticism, waiting on the Lord when He doesn’t answer immediately, are not easy to do at the best of times. But they are certainly challenging to perform zealously.

Ultimately our passion for service must come from God and not our circumstances. When we consider what Christ has done for us, His promises to us, and His ongoing work on our behalf, we are more likely to be passionate in our service for Him. Are you known as a leader who grows hot or cold? Are you zealous for God one day and lukewarm the next? How much, or little, does it take to alter the fervency of your service for Christ? Is your zeal for serving your Lord the same today as it was when He first called you into His service? Or, have you allowed people or problems to rob you of the joy of serving your Lord with all your heart?

Sometimes the simplest questions are the most troubling! God has a way of cutting through the rhetoric, meaningless discussions, and excuses and getting to the heart of the matter. While those we work with may feel awkward about addressing certain issues with us, God feels no such constraint! Our challenge is slowing down long enough so God can have that brief, pointed conversation with us. We can so immerse ourselves in activity and labor that we grow deaf to God’s voice as He seeks to address the fundamental issues of our life.

Our hearts have imaginative ways of justifying whatever we are doing. We can justify the oddest behavior! We can rationalize a retreat and make it appear like an advance. We can spin a defeat until it sounds like a victory. We can present our selfishness, or pride, or greed so it appears to be humble generosity! But God plays no such games. He always speaks truth, even though seasoned with grace.

The reality is that we often did not set out intending to travel to our present destination. We did not necessarily wake up one morning intending to fall away from the Lord or to give ground to our enemies or to sacrifice our godliness. But we ended up doing so nonetheless. Often when this occurs, God does not waste time berating us or heaping coals of guilt upon our heads. Rather He is the master of the brief, direct, and utterly devastating question that cannot be ignored or cast aside.

So what are you doing where you presently are? Where are you spiritually? Where are you in your relationship with your spouse and children or parents? Where are you in your job? In your service in your church? More importantly than how you arrived there, the pressing question is: are you presently where God wants you to be?

Resting can be one of the most profitable of spiritual exercises. At times all of the Scripture reading and prayer in the world will not advance us an inch in our walk with God if we are too exhausted to understand, receive, and respond to what we are reading and hearing. There are certainly times when we must forego sleep to have adequate time to spend with our Lord. But there are other occasions when, out of our physical and emotional exhaustion, we must put all other leadership activities on hold and obtain much needed rest.

God designed people to require rest (Exodus 20:8-11). We cannot work continuously. Everyone, including us, has their limits. If we do not recognize those limits and care for our bodies, a day may come when we are so tired we no longer care about what we are doing. When we are refreshed we can accomplish far more than when we labor in exhaustion. The world appears brighter and God seems closer, when we have rested.

Leaders are so busy and face such enormous demands that we may require more than a short nap to be recharged. Sometimes we need an extended rest. As leaders, we can feel guilty for slowing down or relaxing. At times we need someone to give us permission to cease from our labors. If this is your situation, be of good cheer! God, through the Scriptures, regularly instructs us to rest. In fact, he commands us to.

When was the last time you truly rested? Have you recharged your spirit and physical strength to the point you feel ready for whatever God has for you next? Restoration is not laziness. It is preparing yourself to enthusiastically undertake whatever assignment God has for you next.

Rarely are we as alone or isolated as we think we are. It can seem as if it is “lonely at the top,” but the reality is that when we are doing kingdom work, there are usually other kingdom citizens in the vicinity (1 Kings 19:18). When circumstances become difficult, it is our nature to feel sorry for ourselves and to assume no one else carries a similar load. We tend to magnify our own suffering and minimize the burdens borne by others. In reality, God could show us others who have endured far more than we have. To think that all God has left in His service is us, is to greatly overestimate ourselves!

Likewise, when we complain we are all alone, it is time to take our gaze off ourselves. The reason we cannot see others may be because we have become fixated on ourselves.

Pity parties may feel good at the moment, but they change nothing and they certainly don’t glorify God. People do not look back later with pride on their pity party. Such wallowing in our sorrow does not bring out our best. It might be good for us to recall that the One to whom we are complaining was sent as heaven’s lone emissary into an impoverished refugee family. Jesus had to pray alone, because even His closest friends could not stay awake with Him on His darkest night. He had to die alone because those who declared they would die with Him had denied Him and fled into the night. He understands what it is like to serve alone. Yet He never complained. He never basked in self pity. He understood His role. He knew what was at stake. He was also aware of His future reward. So He served, whether with others or alone. His service was not based on what others were doing or whether others served alongside Him or appreciated Him. His service flowed out of absolute obedience to the One who called Him. It was to Him He would give an account.

We never serve entirely alone, because there is One who promised He would never leave us or forsake us. He is ever vigilant. He constantly seeks to walk with us and to guide us. He never sleeps. He is never preoccupied with other matters. If you feel as if you are serving alone, return to the One who understands being alone far better than we do, and allow Him to give you the strength and resolve to serve Him wholeheartedly.

When is enough, enough? Is it when we accumulate a certain number of opponents or critics? Is it when financial problems attain a particular level? Is it when we have faithfully served a prescribed number of years? Or do we have the right to determine when we quit?

If we are the ones determining and designing our leadership careers, then we can choose when they come to a close. But if we are serving out of a sense of calling, then the One who called us has the prerogative to set the agenda for our lives. We may be leaders but we are foremost servants. Servants don’t decide when they will work and when they will not. They don’t complain every time people demonstrate a lack of appreciation. Servants serve and they expect to be treated like a servant. Our problem at times is that we want the nobility of divine servant-hood without the corresponding sacrifice. We invite God to use us but we disdain the feeling of being used!

When we grow discouraged and desire to quit, we are often overreacting to our current problems. In reality, they generally are not as ominous as they first appear. Time will pass and God will achieve His purposes once again. Our question ought not to be, “Should I have to put up with what I am presently enduring?” but, “Has God yet achieved His purposes through my life in this situation?” Surely Jesus might have muttered, “I have had enough” after the Roman soldiers had flogged Him and pounded nails through His flesh. But He did not. He steadfastly remained at His post refusing to quit or feel sorry for Himself, until He could triumphantly exclaim, “It is finished!” We have no right to abandon a divine assignment, regardless of how difficult, until our Lord, at His good pleasure, chooses to dismiss us.

We can’t lead out of yesterday’s courage. One day we can feel invincible and the next day we are running for our lives! One day no problem seems insurmountable and the day after we desperately want to quit and find a quiet, sedentary job at a distant, tranquil outpost. But that’s not unusual.

The difference is not necessarily in the magnitude of the problems but in the condition of our heart. A heart on fire for God that trusts Him wholeheartedly can defy an entire nation on a mountaintop and audaciously summon fire to descend from heaven. A heart that has been neglected, or emotions that are frayed, however, can become fearful at the slightest threat or criticism. We can never presume upon yesterday’s walk with God.

Unfortunately we are often most vulnerable after we experience success. It is not just defeats that take their toll. Achieving victory can be physically and emotionally exhausting as well. In our effort to serve God, we can neglect our relationship with Him. Or, because we seem to be making progress, we can neglect to care for ourselves even though our leadership tasks are clearly taking their toll. Because we are experiencing success we can wrongly assume that all is well between us and God. And it might well have been, yesterday. But is it today? Or have we allowed our focus to shift even slightly from Him to our problems? Have our critics’ voices become louder than our Master’s?

Leaders can’t afford to bask in yesterday’s success. Today is a new day with fresh challenges. Our courage must be renewed. We must prepare ourselves daily for our next assignment.

Even the greatest and most invincible of leaders eventually reach the end of themselves. We all have an allotment of days, which, when spent, bring us to the end of our life (Psalm 139:16). Some people are satisfied merely with existing. They rise each day to eat, work and sleep. They earn a living, pay their bills, raise a family, and then return to dust. For countless millions of people, this has been the general sum of their lives.

Others have a sense of divine destiny. They believe their life has a purpose greater than merely finding their next meal or paying their bills. There is a reason God chose to place them upon the planet, when, where and how He did. History has largely been shaped by people who chose to live their lives in ways that impacted their world. These people did not want to leave anything on the table when their life was done. They strove to achieve their maximum, God-given potential. They dreaded looking back over their life one day with regret. The world was never the same because they lived.

Moses was such a man. He was not perfect. He made some enormous mistakes. But along the way, Moses came to understand that God had a purpose for his life that was much larger than merely shepherding sheep and providing for his family. There were certain things God intended to accomplish through his life that could change the course of history and impact generations of people to come. As a result, people are being blessed to this day by his legacy. Few eulogies are as impressive as the one Scripture affords to Moses (Deuteronomy 34:10-12). How will your life be summarized one day? Will you have lived your life to meet your own personal needs and wants? Or will you have lived in such a way that God blesses many people through you? Will generations to come continue to feel the impact because you chose to find God’s purpose for your life and then lived your life with wholesale abandon to achieve God’s purposes?

Leaders see farther than do their followers. Followers focus on the immediate tasks at hand. They want to accomplish their assignments by day’s end. Managers focus on doing the same things better and more efficiently than before. But leaders must see farther. They know their people cannot remain where they are forever. They must move forward. Changes must inevitably be made. It is the future that captures the attention of leaders.

How far into the future are you looking? Are you only considering tomorrow? Next week? Next year? Or do you have a long-term view of those you are leading? What might they become ten or twenty or more years from now? What seeds, planted today, will produce giant oak trees one day?

The key is not what we want to see in the future but what God intends to do. Whether it concerns your organization, church, children or grandchildren, do you have a sense of what God is purposing for them? Have you spent time with God asking Him to share His heart with you about these important matters?

Moses spent forty years leading his people into the Promised Land. Yet Moses never saw the land himself. Or did he? God allowed Moses a glimpse not only of the geography, but of the future. God knows the future. He understands what the future results of our actions and life will be. Perhaps if we had a better sense of the future impact of our present actions, we would be more careful and intentional about what we were doing today. Take time to let God reveal to you how He intends to use your life to bless future generations.

Moses made at least two costly mistakes as a leader. First and foremost, he mistakenly assumed that the key to serving God was getting the job done. He was a leader who was results-oriented. He should have learned this as a young man when he murdered an Egyptian in his futile attempt to set an Israelite free. But forty years of shepherding in the wilderness did not teach him that invaluable lesson. In God’s eyes, how something is done is as important as what is accomplished. God told Moses to speak to the rock, not to strike it. Moses ignored the specifics but he got the result he was looking for. The problem? Moses dishonored God’s name in the process. It is possible to do the right thing, the wrong way. In so doing, Moses treated God disrespectfully. He behaved as if God’s command was only a suggestion that could be tampered with and adjusted as it suited him. For that, Moses would pay a stiff penalty.

Moses made a second mistake. He went with his success, instead of God’s word. Earlier God had instructed Moses to strike a rock, and water had bubbled forth (Exodus 17:6). Now, even though God told Moses only to speak to the rock, Moses immediately translated the divine command to resemble what he already knew and experienced. What is more miraculous, to bring water from a rock by striking a stone, or to produce water by speaking to a rock? God was ready to do a greater work through Moses, but Moses was a victim of his previous success. Because striking the rock worked before, now striking rocks was Moses’ specialty!

Has God asked you to do something you have never done before? Don’t modify His command to suit your experience or skill set. Trust the Lord and do exactly as He tells you. Then you will experience God doing an amazing new work in your life and you will glorify Him in ways you never have before.

If you cannot stand to have people oppose you, you should prayerfully consider whether God has called you to be a leader. If you lead, you should expect opposition. This is because when you lead, others will inevitably second-guess you. There will be those who presume that your motives are impure. Others will assume you have not done your homework or that there is a better way than the one you propose. There will be those who criticize you loudly in the public forum and others who whisper sinister innuendoes from the dark shadows of the office hallways. One thing is certain: opposition is inevitable for those who follow their Lord.

Despite the stark record of Scripture and church history that testifies that even God’s choicest servants faced unkind and relentless critics, we are still surprised and offended when people question or oppose us. We tend to take barbs personally. We often wonder why a loving God would allow us to suffer unfair attacks after all we have sacrificed to follow God’s will.

The reality is that the heavenly Father did not even spare His own beloved Son from critics and opponents. When Jesus taught, or healed, He could see the angry Pharisees standing at the edge of the crowd shaking their heads in public disgust. Ever since Satan sought to thwart Adam and Eve from obeying God’s will, God’s people have faced resistance to following God. It has never been easy. It has always come at a price. If you are presently facing opposition as you seek to follow God’s will, keep your eyes riveted on Him. Don’t allow your critics to set your agenda. One day your critics will all fade from view and then all you will see is your Lord and the reward He brings with Him.