Leadership: October 28, 2010

Today's Word for Thursday October 28, 2010

LEADERSHIP

DEFINITION

The act of leading; one who guides, directs or controls; go first.

SCRIPTURE

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

In Hebrews 12 the author likens living the Christian life to running a race. He is challenging us as believers to step out with confidence and run our Christian race with determination and endurance doing all we can to further the good news of the gospel. He says we have a great crowd of witnesses to lead us and encourage us. He lists, one by one, the great heroes of faith from centuries past in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews.

He talks about the great faith of people like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Samson, David and Samuel. They lived by faith and were led by their faith in God. Their great faith gives us reason to follow their leadership.

People like these patriarchs of old, who followed God, serve to lead us today in our race of faith to keep us going in the right direction. God expects us to follow their example of faith. We will have to struggle against sin and endure hardship just as they did. All these leaders were commended for their faith. If we are faithful in our Christian race of life, we too will be commended by God for our faith.

God also expects us to honor our leaders. Our constant study of God's Word is a way that we honor the patriarchs of the scripture as we develop our knowledge of the Bible and grow in our faith. Have you noticed the respect that young men and women who are serving in the armed services have today when they are in the public? They have learned to respect those who lead them in defending our country. Those in leadership deserve our respect unless they are leading us to go against God's leadership.

Leadership for running the race of life must begin in the home. It is only by faith that parents can be successful leaders in their home. Parents are to be the encouragers of faith in their children's lives. This requires spending time daily with your children, not once a week but daily.

We will tell you again, our family had dinner together every night. There was no television or radio on, no telephone calls or other distractions. It was a time to communicate. The two of us still do this every day even since our children are gone and on their own.

Spiritual leadership is lacking today in every area of life. We lack leadership that honors God at the government level, our schools, our workplace, our families and even our churches. Without leadership that honors God our society and families will fail -- and they are failing today.

LEARNING

Our memory verse for this week is found in I Thessalonians 5:18.

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

PRAYER

Help me to learn daily from the experiences the patriarchs left for me in Your Word. Give the leadership that we need to our family. Help us to communicate to others we meet that they need You in their hearts so that they can spend an eternity with You in heaven.