Christians today know that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to follow Christ in our culture. This doesn’t diminish our calling to follow Him in any way. The following devotion was shared with the staff of Westlake Baptist Church at our monthly staff meeting in March 2018.
Scripture: Joshua 1
Being in leadership today, whether paid or lay staff is incredibly difficult. Most every church I know has a similar complaint to this one, it’s hard to find people to help. It is easy to become discouraged when you struggle to find volunteers. It can be discouraging to have personal excitement, but not see it on the face of others who are working in your area of ministry. It can really be discouraging when you are doing what you believe God has told you to do, but you are seeing the results that you expected to see. As I read Joshua 1 the other day as part of my Bible reading plan for this year, I was struck by the number of times I saw a particular phrase. The phrase was “be strong and of good courage.” That phrase appears four times in 18 verses. I pondered on why did God keep telling Joshua to “be strong and of good courage”? Then it hit me. God told Joshua to be strong, because a weak leader will never be able to lead a strong-willed group of people. If you study the book of Exodus you will quickly see the group that Joshua was inheriting from Moses was a strong-willed group. On multiple occasions the people complained and willfully rebelled against God. It lead God to call the “stiff-necked” or what we would call stubborn. We must be strong in the Lord, stand and fight in the power of Him. The greatest way to be strong in the Lord is to be a man or woman of prayer. But God also told Joshua to be of good courage. As a leader, it is very easy to get discouraged. Satan will do whatever he can to put stumbling blocks in front of you, place difficult people around you, and anything else he can think of to discourage and distract you. However, we must remember a few important lessons if we are to remain of good courage.
To remain as a leader of good courage we must:
- Remember it is about God, not me. Joshua 1 starts off by God saying to Joshua, “Moses my servant is dead; now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan” in verse 2. The man goes into the ground, but the message and the mission go on.
- Remember you are not alone. One of the greatest promises given by God to His children is found in verse 5, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” We are going to go through valleys in life and ministry, but we are never alone!
- Remember that what God will accomplish what He promised. God promised in Genesis 12, that He was going to multiply Abraham’s descendants, and that He would give them a land. Even though Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the nation of Israel had failed God and sinned numerous times; God was still faithful to His promise.
- Remember that God raises up those He desires to use. If God wanted Moses to lead the nation of Israel into the Promised Land, then God would have used Moses. In the same way, God has gifted you, give you passion, and called you to the ministry you are in because He desires to use you for His glory and to accomplish His purpose. You may feel unqualified or unable to do anything, but God doesn’t make mistakes. Remember point number one, it is about God not you! God uses the weak things and the foolish things of this world. It is never about what you can do for God, it is about what you allow God to do in you and through you.
- God prepares us for His purpose. God doesn’t waste any experience in our life. Even if the experience is bad and not what God would have desired for us; He can still turn something bad into something good. At the same time we must understand that God will not just give us a big responsibility without first preparing us. We must be proven faithful in the little things, before He will entrust us with bigger things. So see your current situation and circumstances as part of God’s preparation process. You may be like the faithful men and women of the Old Testament who believed in God’s promises, looked for them, labored for them; but in the end never saw them. But their life and their ministry had a purpose. Or God might let you see the fruits of your labor and to enjoy the harvest. Regardless of whether you get to see it all come to fruition or not, keep your eyes on Jesus, be faithful to Him, and He will be pleased.
May we as Christians be able to say as Paul did in 1 Corinthians, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”
Pastor Justin