Tag: God

Fighting Fear

Zig Ziglar once said, “F-E-A-R has two meanings: ‘Forget Everything And Run’ or ‘Face Everything And Rise.’ The choice is yours.”

How do we channel fear in ways that harness its power to move us to rise instead of run?

1. Recognize what we fear. Are we afraid of failure or success, rejection or acceptance?
2. Have the right expectations. Expectations can create a fear of falling short or being overwhelmed.
3. Seek healthy communication. Talk with someone who can help guide us in overcoming it.
4. Remember God is our ally. Knowing who God is and that He fights for us, minimizes fear.

Indifference and Lethargy

We live in a world too often characterized by indifference and lethargy.

Leaders must find ways to prevent and overcome these characteristics in the church.

What does this really mean? It means we must…

1) Increase the desire of God’s people to be together.
2) Fan the flame of enthusiasm for sharing the gospel.
3) Energize the creativity of brothers and sisters in Christ.
5) Strengthen the hands of God’s faithful.
6) Lift up the hearts that are weak and struggling.

When leaders see the opportunity and do something about it, preparing to make the needed improvements, persevering through the challenges, we overcome indifference and lethargy.

Humble Leaders

Leadership begins with humility, an emptying process of self. The idea is an emptiness that forces us to look up to the one who can fill us with purpose, direction, and fulfillment.

When the quality of humility is seen by others, there is a genuineness that exists in the character of the individual that draws others to follow and emulate.

Recognizing who we are (and perhaps who we are not) and the need for complete dependency on God is a beginning point.

Once we stop trying to do it on our own and trust God’s sovereign control, we are starting to understand humility.

A Loyal Leader

Loyalty is a vital characteristic in leadership. Leaders must be loyal to those they influence. How can leaders build the kind of loyalty needed to lead?

Demonstrate trust: The trust we have in God must be exemplified in our service. We must also learn to trust in others.

Develop consistency and integrity:
The decisions we make in leadership must be made with a consistent standard of integrity.

Dedicate the heart: Dedication involves the highest level of commitment. We must be dedicated to God, others, and reaching the goal.

These are three of many steps, but if we use them we can build a solid foundation for loyalty.

Rating Our Leadership

We enjoy the idea of rating performance, looks, ability, etc. and, generally, we use a scale from 1 to 10. How would we rate our leadership?

While consistent standards are helpful, we need to realize a couple of factors.

1) People will rate our leadership (whether we like it or not).
2) Our rating is based on ability, decisions, relationships, and previous success.
3) We will give an account to God for our leadership.
4) The final measuring device will be God’s word.

Changing our rating is up to us. When we use God’s word, on a scale of 1 to 10, how will our leadership measure up?

The Heart

The heart is the innermost vital part, or essence of something.

Building on this understanding, the heart of leadership takes on a completely different picture. Consider the growth of the early church. Leadership was the innermost vital part and the essence of its growth.

If we really want the church to grow today, maybe we need to pay attention to the heart of leadership. Perhaps leaders need to take a greater role in fulfilling the God-given task of being the innermost vital part and essence of the church.

When this happens, we will see a revival.

I Surrender All

Paul told Christians in Romans 12 to present their bodies a living and holy sacrifice.

The idea is based on an Old Testament reference to sacrifices. When God’s people brought their sacrifice, it was presented as an offering to the Lord, which meant they surrendered all rights of ownership and any plans for future use.

When leaders understand this concept their perspective changes concerning how they lead God’s people.

If we could grasp the significance of this one practice, the culture of the church would change and our influence in the world would be immeasurable.

May we all present ourselves to the Lord!

Letting God Down

Few people think about what happens when they let someone down.

Sadly, our desire to not let someone down leads us to try and please everyone. Even though we know it is impossible, we still try.

Have we ever considered how our decisions, words, or actions let God down? Spiritual leadership carries some of the greatest responsibility on earth and we never want to let those we lead down. Above all, we never want to let our God down.

If we focus on Him and pursue His will, we may let someone down, but our relationship with God remain secure.

Imagination

Children have a vivid imagination. They possess the ability to take a stick and a handful of rocks and become the greatest baseball player of all time.

As we age, however, our imaginations seem to lose that luster. We fail to allow our imaginations to take us to another level of thinking. We get blinded to how things have always been and often refuse to consider how things can be.

The worst part is that opportunities may only come once and if we do not use a little imagination and get outside the box, we may lose the opportunity God provides for growth beyond our imagination. Read Ephesians 3:20.

Dream Big

How often do we strive to achieve great things, but are unwilling to do what is necessary to make those dreams come true? I am uncertain who said it, but the thought is great, “You can’t have a Million Dollar DREAM with a minimum wage work ethic.”

We think too small. Before we make excuses, shackle ourselves with our inabilities, or blame someone or something else for our small thinking, we need to remember the God we serve.

God planned to give Israel the land, but it did not eliminate the need for them to fight the battles. It will not be any different today. So, Dream Big!