What kind of leader are you?
I love the Old Testament. I never used to, because I never used to read my Bible. Oh, I’d give it a nod. Maybe a verse or two on a good day: but that is not going to get you a relationship with God, which I have now, and I never want to wander away from that again! Before, I always had a nagging sense that God was ‘out there’ and not liking me very much. But one day I discovered His kindness and that led me to repentance. I wanted to get to know Him, and as I drew nearer to Him, He drew nearer to me.
So recently, I read this in Deuteronomy: ‘The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’ The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself. When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel.’ (Deuteronomy 17:16-20)
You might think: …so, what.!? This doesn’t apply to me. I know that God is addressing the king of Israel, but God is a God of patterns. What if this DOES apply to us? Right here he is giving us the definition of godly leadership! You might think: ‘well, I’m not a leader, either.’ But you are! We are all modeling our lives after someone we admire, whether we realize it or not. And we are all influencing others around us: our kids, grandkids, spouses, fellow employees, friends. You are an influencer!
So, here’s what I saw:
1-Don’t be greedy. Don’t use your position, whatever it is, to ‘get ahead’. Don’t set out to get more and more: now I’m also saying this is just between you and God. It’s not for us to tell each other what is ok to have and what is not. God is the one who blesses us with our wealth, but he never wants us to set our hearts on our stuff. It’s all temporary, and we want to be building up treasure in heaven, where it will last forever. Use the resources God gives for good and be ready to meet needs.
2.Never go back to what God has saved you from. This is a big one. God saved them from slavery in the land of Egypt, but in a weak moment, their slavery seemed better to them than the unknown with God. They even wanted to appoint a leader to take them back! But going back to what God has saved you from is death. When God saved me from my sin, I had to make a lot of changes: there are places I don’t go, people I don’t see. I am surrounded by people who encourage me in my walk or who I am encouraging. My grandkids all know my passwords and here’s what I have discovered in all this: joy and freedom! God has so much good planned for us, because he made us, He loves us, and He is good! Don’t go back.
3.Be careful about who you marry and who you hang out with. So, in Bible times, they had more than one wife. Try not to get hung up on that and miss the point. God always intended for a man and a woman to be joined together in marriage. The point that he is making here is that the people closest to you have great power to influence the entire direction of your life. Maybe you are married, and your spouse doesn’t love Jesus: well…. that needs to be bathed in prayer. But what you CAN do is to surround yourself with godly friends. ‘Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”’ (I Corinthians 15:33). I used to be here once. I had very little room for God and was only interested in having ‘fun’. Well, what didn’t seem like a big deal at first turned out to be a slippery slope until I became a person I no longer recognized. And when I was at my lowest, thankfully, God Himself spoke to me. He said: “get to know Me. Your life can be good again.” And it is! I have so much joy that I never had before! But now I am very careful about who I hang out with. Ask yourself: do my friends talk about what God is doing in their lives? Do I when I am with them? Do we pray together? Sometimes you need to end relationships that are keeping you away from God.
4.Keep your Bible with you and read it daily. When God told me to get to know Him, I started reading my Bible. And something amazing happened: I fell in love with Him and with His word! I would wake up in the morning and think: ‘where’s my Bible?’ I was so eager to hear from Him! And as I read, I would get this thought: Yes. You know it’s true.’ An assurance that His word was good and could be trusted. And He helped me to lay down my thoughts that were suspicious of His goodness (those come from the Enemy). Whenever I would read something, I didn’t understand or that seemed ‘unfair’ to someone, He helped me to remember two things: first, that He is God, and I am not. And second, that I am so incredibly loved and that He is longing to be my Father and my Friend. Ask Him, like I did, to help you read the Bible through the lens of His love.
5.Daily reading keeps you humble. To be humble frees you to see God and others in the right perspective. Something I noticed recently is that everything God did for the king was ultimately to bless His people, Israel. People need leadership, but God says that the leader is not to think he is better than the people he is leading! He’s not, and we’re not. I’m accountable to God for the way I treat my children and grandchildren. Am I kind and gentle with them? Do I listen to them? Am I the kind of person that would make them say: ‘I want what she has!’ That is my desire…I want to spend forever with my whole family -with Danny, with all my kids and grandkids.
6.Daily reading keeps you from turning away from God in the smallest way. David said: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
Something I have been doing ever since 2019 is memorizing different passages. And something amazing happens when you do that: you start to get thoughts and understanding about what you’re memorizing. I am currently memorizing the Song of Moses that the people sang to the Lord when He delivered them out of Egypt, out of their slavery. It made me realize that we need to honor God and thank Him when He delivers us. And when you memorize, God brings it back into your mind.
7.Your life will be blessed. Here it says that doing these things will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many years in Israel. Well, we know that we are not kings, but God is telling us what He is like! He blesses those who follow Him:
‘Listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people. But let them not return to their foolish ways. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, so our land will be filled with his glory. Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed!’ (Psalm 85:8-10)
He blesses us with peace and with His favor when we look at our lives truthfully and line them up with His word. Do this, and you will be a godly leader, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (II Peter 1.11)