Fresh Bread: Leadership! (What We All Need in Difficult Times)

Then the LORD told Moses, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land… Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must LEAD my people Israel out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:7-10, NLT)

This year has got to rank as one of the most unsettling years in recent history. People’s anxieties are surely being tested, especially when we consider the political events of both the primary and presidential elections, the destructive impact of the recent hurricanes, and the recent economic crisis which former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, says is the worst he’s seen in his lifetime. It seems like at more than any other time since September 11, 2001, our country is in need of God-given leadership.

It always amazes me how independent we as Americans claim to be until crisis hits our lives. It’s then that we realize how important it is to have good leadership. In the Bible, God shows us time and time again the important role that good leadership plays in His plan. In fact good leadership, whether it’s a president, a coach, a pastor, a boss, a spouse, or a parent, is the mechanism by which God blesses (provides preferential treatment) to people. And if this is true, then the absence of good leadership reflects the absence of God’s blessing.

There are many sophisticated ways one can try to measure or identify good leadership, but I believe it can be summed up in a phrase Ronald Regan stated almost thirty years ago: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” And that’s really the question. Are you better off now than you were before? If the answer is yes, then praise God for blessing you with good leaders. If the answer is no, then pray that God will send someone into your life whom He will use to lead you out to the place He desires for you.

PRAYER: Holy Spirit, during these times of uncertainty provide me with Your direction as to whom God’s chosen to use to lead me into my divine purpose. Amen.