Today’s Reading, Micah 1-7
Focal Scripture: Micah 7:14 “Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that is your possession. They live alone in a woodland surrounded by pastures. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in ancient times.”
Being a good leader is very important. To often people are placed in leadership roles that their character and abilities are not able to handle. In the Christian context being a leader means being a shepherd. It doesn’t matter if you are the “lead” pastor or the children’s worker. Every person has the responsibility to shepherd the people in a way that is biblical.
In today’s reading we see that Micah wants the people to be shepherded by the Lord. He wants them to experience God’s staff of protection and guidance. Why? Because the Lord is the one who owns and loves the flock. The Lord knows what is best and can guide the nation back to holiness and devotion. Micah wants the people to experience what the Jewish people did when they were delivered from their enemies.
That can only happen when the sheep listen to the shepherd. The sheep who belong to the shepherd will respond. Those who don’t respond belong to another leader. So what does this mean for us today? It means that we should guide people to follow the Lord.
Being a biblical leader requires us to be good shepherd to those in our lives. Being a good shepherd means that we must be humble, able to protect, and have the ability to guide even those who are rebellious to what is right and just.
Micah declared the goodness of the Lord and his ability to shepherd. God has given believers today the same ability and it comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. I know in my life it is very difficult to follow people who are not shepherds. It is obvious when people have agendas that are self serving.
Our hearts should be to serve people with all that we have even when they bite us, run from us and don’t want to stay away from things that will hurt them. We have the model of what a good shepherd looks like, we just need to model it in everything that we do in our lives.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading 2 Chronicles 28 & 2 Kings 16-17
