Daily Light - September 13, 2011

Daily Light from the Lighthouse

"And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt,

and everyone who was discontented gathered to him."

1 Samuel 22:2

The greatest challenge of leadership is that you don't get to choose your followers. Imagine being in one of the most difficult days of your life. You know that God has anointed you to be a leader for His sake, but at this moment you are trying to simply stay alive. Perhaps you misunderstood God's direction. You thought that He had anointed you to do great things, but simply surviving is not what you think you were called to.

David sat alone in a cave with all of these thoughts racing through his mind as he paused to catch his breath from running for the last 24 hours. Suddenly, there is a sound at the mouth of the cave. Have they found him? Is he trapped? Someone calls his name, and he nervously answers. For the next several hours there are many more men that come to him looking for leadership. All is well now and he has an army, right? Well, not so fast. Look at the description of this group: a whole host of men who are stressed out, in debt up to their eyeballs, and angry with the government. Who wouldn't want to be the leader of this group?

Leadership is not about having a perfect group of people to lead. So many times leaders are looking for people that have a certain skill set, just the right amount of charisma, and a positive attitude. They want individuals that are creative thinkers with the financial backing to accomplish their dreams. What do you do however if the crowd behind you waiting for your orders and watching your example has none of these abilities? You do what every godly leader does. You follow Christ and demonstrate that to others.

A godly leader demonstrates love in such a way that people learn how to love like Christ. A godly leader lives by principles that are contained within the Word of God so that others turn to the Word for themselves. A godly leader walks by faith daily so that those watching him have a desire to pick up their cross daily and follow Jesus. No one can be a great leader of others until they have learned to be a great follower of Christ
May you follow Christ closely so that you might lead today!