The Inspired Leader: 101 Biblical Reflections for Becoming a Person of Influence (44 page)

God knows what your priorities should be for each day. Today it might be a project at work. Tomorrow it might be your daughter. God can accurately guide you each day to ensure you accomplish what you must for that day. If you follow His lead, you will live a life that may not always appear balanced at the moment, but will be complete, and full over time.

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

1. Have you attempted to live a “balanced life”? How effective has that been?
   

2. Have you suffered at times from imbalance? Have you focused so exclusively on certain activities that other priorities such as your family, were unnecessarily neglected?
   

3. Take time to seek God’s will each day. He can guide you each day to know what is most important at that particular time. You must seek Him regularly though, because each day, your priority might change. Your life may seem imbalanced on any given day, but over time, God can guide you to attend to every important responsibility in your life.
   

George Clark

Jr. Managing Director, Freestone Partners, LLC

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

TITUS 2:13 (KJV)

AS BELIEVERS WE have the true hope! That hope is eternal life with our Lord. However, as humans, and as leaders, many of us live with divided hope. There is much in the world that clamors for our attention. We know our true hope is in heaven, but our eyes are focused on the temporal hope of the world.

“No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

MATTHEW 6:24

As my career developed, I struggled with many things such as my health or raising my children from newborns into teenagers. Along with these challenges came the continual temptation to place my trust in what was temporal or worldly. As a leader, the priority of things like meeting the objectives of our different constituents or making budget creeps into my focus. But daily, as I spend time with the Lord, He gently reminds me that I am to work with all my heart and with excellence in everything that I do. I am not to place my hope in anything other than Him. Many leaders today extol erratic values. We begin to place a priority on power, prosperity, or riches. Consequently, we should not be surprised when those who follow us are inconsistent in their values in life and work.

It is difficult to trust in the Lord with all that you are with less than a single-minded focus on Him. It is a moment-by-moment decision to choose Jesus over the distraction in front of us.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to choose between trusting God or being upset that I did not get my way. Having struggled with upper back problems for over a year, I decided to try a minimally invasive treatment that had a high chance of success. It did not work. I have seen several doctors and tried most anything they thought would help. After prayer and reflection, I stopped to praise God. Why? Because I know that this is His perfect will. I am asking Him to open my eyes to His teaching and to strengthen me to do His will. While I am uncertain if and when God will allow my back to recover, I walk each day in confidence that the pain is here for my good and His glory.

It is my choice: Where is my focus? Do I trust Him? How about you?

In what or whom do you trust? Your business success? Your family? Your Lord and Savior? Look at your calendar and credit card statement from last month. These should verify your answer. What would your coworkers or family say?

Let’s focus on Jesus and lift each other up daily. It’s not just the best way to live; it is the only way.

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

1. Do you tend to trust more in your own skills and experience, or in Christ? How can you make sure you keep your trust and focus squarely on Christ?
   

2. Can you praise God even when you do not get what you want? Can you rejoice in Christ even when He allows you to suffer pain? How can you do that?
   

3. People are watching you and how you live your life. What do they see? If they were to model your behavior, what would they do?
   

James Barnett

President, DaySpring Cards

DURING MY YEARS as a young boy (the youngest of seven children), our family took only two major vacations. The first was to the west coast when I was four years old. Eight of the nine of us piled into the car (with no air conditioning!) to travel from Arkansas to California. The other big trip was when I was 11. This time six of our family members went to the east coast pulling a trailer for lodging through the Great Smokey Mountains, to Washington DC and on to New York City. Then it was on to Boston and back across to Niagara Falls. It was awesome!

Because we traveled so little during these years (cost and a big family!), I remember vividly the impact those trips had on me. I was deeply impressed by the sites, monuments, and activities we were able to experience—encountering so many magnificent places and things for the first time. God’s beauty and some of man’s creations were wowed me big time!

Many years later when my wife and I had our own three children, we decided that each summer we would take a trip for two weeks to see our great country and God’s beautiful creation. So along with my sister and brother-in-law and their two kids (nine of us in all), we decided a great goal would be to cover all of the national parks and major sites of the US over a 10-15 year period! We would rent a 12-or 15-passenger van and off we would go…usually 4,000 miles in two weeks… cheap hotels and lots of hiking and sightseeing. We were moving…and taking it in.

After seeing so many beautiful and wonderful sites for days and days and listening to me say again and again, “Wow, take it in,” the kids became less and less impressed and excited. In fact, they grew a little bored! Our “wow factor” had worn out. We had shown them so many magnificent things they weren’t interested anymore.

We often do the same thing in our spiritual life. As new believers we are impressed with God. Over time, the excitement wanes and we grow less and less enthralled. Then we hit tough times, hardships, disappointments, etc. and we lose the “wow” of God. While we have some “mountaintop” experiences along the way, we discover that much of life is lived in the valley or on the mountainside. Yet, because we lose perspective and “life” beats down on us, we fail to be impressed even when God does something awesome in our lives once again.

We also see this happen repeatedly in Scripture. Jesus performed miracle after miracle, and, while people were impressed for a time, they wandered back to “the mountain-side of life” and failed to really take it in.

As we mature in our journey with Christ, I want to encourage you (as I encourage myself) to not lose heart in our day-to-day activity. While most of life is lived out “on the mountainside,” God is always at work. Look for where He is working and join Him. Mark the times He reveals Himself to you, His beauty, His power, His answers to prayers. Remember and record the spiritual markers of life when God illuminates Himself to you…and He becomes a little more real to you.

When you get discouraged, take time to recount the specific times in the past He has shown Himself to you and you said, “Wow! Take it in!” Check out Matthew 8:23-27 when Jesus calms the storm. It closes with verse 27: “
The men were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!
’”(NIV)
Never lose your amazement for God!

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

1. Have you lost your amazement at the goodness of God? From the time you first became a Christian, have you lost your amazement and wonder at who God is? If you have, what happened? How might you regain it?
   

2. Have certain spiritual habits become rituals instead of moments for worship? Attending worship services and having quiet times can become boring rituals rather than exciting encounters with Christ. If that has happened to you, how might you restore the excitement and freshness of your times with God? Could you change your routine? Could you do some things differently? Think of some practices that will enhance and invigorate your time with God.