Confidence - the key to competing

The 2012 Olympics just completed. Numerous men and women from around the world competed against each other to win the gold medal, each having spent years training themselves for these events. In each event, only one person wins. To have a chance to win you must enter the arena, the competition. The competition is intense and powerful for unless you choose to compete against the powers of this world, you have not really yet entered the arena because the prize is awarded only to those who defeat the powers of this world. To win the gold we need, as did Jesus Christ, to keep our focus on the heart of God, to discipline and master the thoughts of our mind and the actions of our heart so not as to allow the powers of this world to distract and defeat us. You can tell others about the prize and you can help them train, but ultimately you have control only over yourself. Make every effort to prepare  yourself to compete and to keep yourself on the right course to finish the race. The winner is not the one who does it out of shear discipline and personal strength. The winner is the one whose confidence in God is so strong that he/she is able to release themselves fully into the hands of God, to trust Him, with absolute confidence to lead you across the finish line. 1 Corinthians 9

Dance Again

When things get really tough remember this, the challenges you are facing that cause you to feel beaten and abandoned by God are only for a moment. Our brokenness and tears only last for the night then comes morning and shouts of joy.  Although at the moment it may feel like God has abandoned you, he has not abandoned you, his favor is upon you for a lifetime. King David faced death by his enemies yet his heart was so attuned with God that he could say, “Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me; O Lord, be Thou my helper. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; Thou has loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness; that my soul may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to Thee forever.” Psalm 30

Avoid the tall trees

God has a plan for us. That is good news! And God’s plan for us is for our benefit, it is a plan of hope and a future. Often however, as we go about life we become complacent or get easily seduced into going down a path that takes us on a journey into some territory that leads us away from living the plan God has for us. Then we come to a place in life that we begin to recognize that God has so much more he wants to give us in life, so much more he has promised, and we are missing out. Picture yourself hiking in the wilderness. The views from the mountain tops are grand as you look across multiple peaks, you come upon a stream, then a waterfall, fields of wildflowers. You have been walking enjoying the journey but not recognizing that you have now journeyed off and are surrounded by a field of tall pine trees. There is no visible trail. Your heart begins to beat faster now, your anxiety leads your body to drip with sweat, your stomach starts to turn. With every little sound your imagination begins to tell of the danger all around you. You are lost and you know it. More so than any other time do you recognize you need help. Sometimes God needs to take us on a journey that leads us to a point where we will earnestly see that we need him, and we have strayed from the plan he has for us. The good news is, when we come to that point again he leads us back to the point where we began.  Jeremiah 29:11-14

Unwavering Conviction

Is the confidence of your purpose sure that in the midst of opposition you have the courage and conviction to stay with it until your opposition is totally destroyed and you have completed everything you set out to do. For 5-7 years Joshua was on the battlefield. His assignment to utterly destroy all who breathed in the land God promised to Israel. Joshua 11:15 says, “and so Joshua did, he left nothing undone of all the Lord had commanded Moses.” To stay with something as Christ, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, the disciples, and other martyrs did you need to have the confidence in your calling from God, and unwavering conviction that comes from trusting God completely. Joshua was victorious because he stuck to it. He stuck to it, day after day, always alert to his enemies who were waiting for him to lose focus for a moment, to tire, to doubt, or to give up. Joshua had to stay alert, focused, in constant pursuit of the objectives God set him on, otherwise he would loose the battle. 

Are you a Good Shepherd type Leader

Lessons on Leadership form the parable of the Good shepherd – John 10:1-18. A good shepherd/leader has a personal relationship of trust with each of his followers/sheep that they respond to his leadership because they know him and he knows them. How are you as a leader building trust with your sheep/followers? How are you as a leader getting to know by name your followers/sheep? A good shepherd/leader cares about his followers/sheep, wanting for them each to experience abundant joy in daily living, which comes from faith in and fellowship with God and righteous living. A good shepherd/leader stands firm in battle, a warrior who provides protection for his followers/sheep and does not flee when the battle gets heavy. A good leader/shepherd gives his life (psuche), his very heart, mind, and soul for his followers/sheep.

As you reflect on the parable of the Good Shepherd, don't dismiss yourself as not being a leader. To some extent we are all leaders, whether to your children, your spouse, to others who serve with you, or to whom you serve.

Also think of yourself as being a sheep. How well do you know your shepherd/leader? Whether that be God or a spouse, a leader in ministry, or your leader at work.

God places on the mind and heart of the leader what he wants the leader to do; then God gives him followers/sheep who are skilled to do the work. To be successful in accomplishing what God has for the leader to do the leader needs to know his followers/sheep in such a manner that they have confidence to follow him at all times and in all circumstances. How would you measure your effectiveness as a leader?

Leading and Serving

In reading the story of Abraham’s servant’s journey to find a wife for Jacob in Genesis 24 what can we learn about leadership and serving? The leader, Abraham, had confidence in what God had called him to do. This gave Abraham, the leader, confidence in what he asked the servant to do. The leader had someone he trusted to carry out a very important assignment that required faith. The servant, had confidence in the leader having witnessed God’s favor on the leader over a period of time. The servant was committed to doing the will of the leader, and to bringing about the success of the leader, and his goals and objectives. The servant had faith in the leader, and in the God of the leader. The leader assured the servant that his work would be successful and that the same God who guided and blessed the leader would also guide and bless the servant.

All of us are servants and leaders. Abraham, the leader, was following and serving God, and the servant in this story was leading others to fulfill Abraham’s mission in finding a wife for Jacob. Serving requires confidence in those we serve. It requires confidence in the leader and the leader of the leader. Serving also requires an intentional focus and effort to achieve the success of the one we serve, rather than drawing attention to yourself (see also Matthew 23:1-12). In this story, we don’t know the name of the servant, this servant was not out to make a name for himself, but to bring about the success of his leader. This servant’s attitude resulted in the leader trusting this one servant, above all other servants, with this very important assignment.

Why was this servant successful? Because he believed Abraham, his leader, and he believed in the God of Abraham, and his mission was to fulfill the goals of his leader. Our end goal in life is to glorify God, our ultimate leader. Does your leadership and service reflect a confidence and willingness to serve and attain the success of your leader, and ultimately of God our Father. Remember it is God who guides and directs us to lead and serve where we are. It is ultimately, as it was in this story, God who receives all the glory, and that is good because the chief aim of mankind is to glorify God.

Passing the Test

Although my days of attending school are long past, we are constantly learning and therefore constantly being schooled in life. In Genesis 22 Abraham is over 100 years old and he is still being tested, and the test is much greater than a math or English exam. This test involves the life of his only son, which he has waited most of his life to have. Abraham’s relationship with God was something special. His reverence for God was so great that when God spoke to him he listened and obeyed. He did not question God, as many of us would especially under the circumstances of sacrificing our only child. Abraham did not rationalize within himself that he must have misunderstood the voice of God, as certainly God would not want him to do such a foolish thing to his son. Abraham believed what God’s voice told him to do, and he just went forward in obedience to fulfill what God asked him to do. Abraham passed the test, would you? Are you walking with God in such a manner that you hear his voice? When God asks you to do something is your reverence for God so great that your thoughts are centered on doing it no matter what the danger or consequences are before you? Abraham believed God and because of his faithful obedience God blessed Abraham and the generations that followed. For myself I can say in those times when God has tested me I have not always passed the test as did Abraham, but I am learning to trust the hearing of God’s voice and to have the confidence to obey it without reservation. Hopefully in my next test my heart will have the faith of Abraham and succeed in doing all God ask of me.