A few years ago I experienced major conviction. The president at the time was someone who I disagreed with tremendously. His actions while in office were reprehensible to me and I opposed him vigorously. That’s when the conviction came, a correction from the Spirit with a simple question. If you faced the temptations that man faces every day, would you do any better. I didn’t like my answer. I’d like to think I could resist, but that’s easy to say from the arm chair, and I can be pretty good at convincing myself that the right thing to do is the thing that tempts me most. Further I have not been called to agree with my leaders, but I have been called to pray for them. I was coming up short there too and knew I had to do better.
Fast forward to last week. I saw an ad for one of those online course companies. They were offering a leadership course from this particular president. I have to admit I cringed a little. I’ve always felt that if I struggled in any one area it would be leadership skills. I do my best but there have been times where I would love to be a little more decisive and that leadership would be a little more intuitive. That being said, I would never want to lead like this man led. I decided to look at the comments on the post and not surprisingly they were savage, to the point where conviction came once again.
But here’s the thing, credibility is important, especially for leaders and even more for Christian leaders, and if you are using your gifts to serve the Lord, there is a leadership component to that. This man rose to incredible success. There are many people who call the president of the United States the leader of the free world, yet on the subject of leadership, people have clearly not forgotten the example he set and they want no parts of it. The example we set is hugely important and if we want to lead well we have got to demonstrate credibility. Does that mean we can’t step into leadership until we are perfect? Of course not, there was only ever one perfect leader and we crucified Him, but it does mean we need to guard our hearts, and repent when we fail. For a good guideline on all of this, look at this verse from the New Living Translation, 1 Timothy 4:16 Keep a close watch on how you live and your teaching, Stay true too what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.
If we want to have credibility, we need to be careful what we do, and when people fall, we need to stop piling on and pray instead. Temptation is a bear, and everyone of us has an area where we could take a hit.
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