Today’s Reading, 1 Samuel 13-14
Focal Scripture: 1 Samuel 13:14 “but now your reign will not endure. The Lord has found a man after his own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his people, because you have not done what the Lord commanded.”
Leaders make all the difference in an organization and in the church. If you have good and godly leaders, many great things will be accomplished. The people will be loved and taken care of on their journeys. If you have good leadership you can speak hard truths to people because you have developed deep relationships. However, if you have bad leadership things can go hidden for a long time. It looks good on the outside but the organization or the church is actually dying from the inside. This death won’t be realized until it is too late and then pain and suffering will abound for everyone.
In today’s reading we see what happens when leadership is foolish. Saul has been anointed king. He was given authority. He was told if he followed the Lords commands he would be successful. Unfortunately, he was impatient and decided to violate the law of the Lord. What did he do? He refused to wait on the prophet Samuel and committed the sacrifice himself. In his attempt to do the right thing, he violated the law of God. His decision making was bad and continually hurt himself and the people of Israel.
The reason organizations and churches struggle so much today is because they have foolish leadership. People are put into positions that their character is unable to handle. It starts out well and everyone is excited. Then when important decisions are being made you start to see the true character of the individual making these decisions.
One of the easiest ways to determine the character of a leader is to see if they gossip and talk about people under their charge. Every good leader I have been around refused to speak negative about others, even when they deserved for it to happen. They refuse to do that because it violates scripture and belittles another person. On the other hand bad leaders will constantly talk about others behind their backs. They will try to justify it in a variety of ways. They will say “I am just trying to get advice.” Or “I am just human and need to vent.” Almost every time they talk about others is because that person either had a different idea or wouldn’t blindly follow them and their leadership.
Foolish leadership tears down other people. Wise leadership builds relationships and then lovingly speaks biblical truth to those individuals. The goal is restoration, not power. So what type of leader are you? What type of leader are you following?
Good leaders should be elevated and given proper respect. Bad leaders should have their positions taken from them just like Saul. It is beyond time for bad leaders to be held accountable in this life and to give them to the Lord for judgement. Pray that your life will reflect good leadership. Pray that you have the courage to call out publicly bad leadership.
The world is watching and who we pick to lead our organizations and our churches will speak volumes about how serious leadership is in those environments. It is time to change the culture about leadership expectations.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading 1 Samuel 15-17
