One of my readers and friends made the following comment about my last devotional:
“If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask …. I want a leader that seeks God, not sure there’s any among the candidates in the running.”
This comment was in relation to the topic of “Qualities of a Godly Governmental leader”. I agree that it is a difficult election year, but we still have to sift through all the noise to come up with the best person for this important position.
When we can’t find a candidate who seeks God, there are a couple of things we can do. First and foremost, we should go to the Bible to remind ourselves about the Biblical role of civil government in people’s lives and our responsibility towards government.
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 1Timothy 2:1-3
The scripture tells us to pray for those who are in authority and intercede on their behalf. This includes those we like, disagree with, or downright oppose. In recent years, it seems like Christians have joined one of two camps. The members of “involved camp” are very informed about politics, which sometimes can lead them to become political, rude, and disrespectful. The members of “uninvolved camp” desire to completely be oblivious and stay away from participating in their role as concerned voter. They believe since Jesus is the answer to everything, no need to stress or strive over politics. Regardless of the camp we are in, the Bible exhorts us to pray for our governmental leaders.
According to the above scripture, the purpose of government is to allow peace (Shalom) to be present in order for people to feel safe and lead a quiet life. It is important for governmental leaders to understand their role as individuals who maintain peace and protection for all citizens and especially for those who are trying to live a Godly and reverent life.
Over the years, the government has taken on many roles and has tried to be the savior/answer to every ill in society. As a believer, we should be clear about the role of government, so we can eliminate non-essentials and focus on issues that the government should participate in. This can help clarify the best candidate for the position.
I will continue with this subject in the next devotional.
The fear of the Lordis the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10
One of the most important qualities of a leader is to fear the Lord. Good leaders know where their authority comes from, and they are not deceived about who is really in control. They realize that if it wasn’t for God, they would not even be in that position, so they care very much about what the Lord says in governmental matters.
Sadly, in this day and age, we are more impressed with leaders’ level of education or popularity rather than their level of wisdom. Candidates spend years getting prestigious education and raise millions of dollars funding their campaign, but they would not necessarily bow their knee, pray, and seek the Lord on matters of great importance.
What if when a president or a presidential candidate gets asked a tough question, he/she responds by stating, ”This is a complicated matter. I need to ask the Lord and seek His wisdom on this issue.” This kind of statement would not be appealing to the masses, and neither would it make the candidate look strong and decisive.
We live in a pluralistic society where we don’t want to offend people with our beliefs. We don’t mind offending God who has given us this great nation and has abundantly blessed us with vast resources, but in the name of political correctness, we fear offending the voters.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5
The above scripture tells us that wisdom is available to those who ask. As a matter of fact, there is no reproach in asking, rather God is willing to give it generously to those who ask. The goal is not to create a theocracy but to include God in matters of great importance, and invite Him to direct and guide this amazing nation through uncharted territories. This nation will be successful when we return to the Lord and put Him at the center of our attention. Governmental leaders should not fear the reproach of man but ask God for wisdom.
Do our leaders recognize the hand of the Lord who allows them to get to their prestigious and powerful positions? Do they have the courage to acknowledge Him before people and show their faith as a lifestyle rather than a ceremonial event?
Let’s pray for Godly leadership for our nation, and let’s pray for ourselves that we would evaluate leadership not based on our culture or worldview but God’s view of leadership.
I am going to pause from the topic of “Qualities of a Godly Governmental Leader ” to focus on this important day.
Today is a significant day in history; it marks the day that evil and good came to a head on crash! This is the day that all powers of hell broke loose, and the darkness took over the land. God removed His hand of grace and allowed sin to be seen for what it really is. Every form of decency and justice disappeared, and false accusation and betrayal became the prominent players in this cosmic conflict!
When Jesus and his disciples stepped into this Friday centuries ago, Good Friday was anything but good! Fear, trepidation, confusion, pain, rejection, distrust, denial, and betrayal all came together to create a very dark day. The Son of God took on the sin of humanity and exposed the depth of sin that lays doormat in each of us waiting for an opportune time.
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15
Jesus prays in the garden Matthew 26:39-40
This is the day that God reached into the depth of hell to take back the keys to the Kingdom of God, which the devil stole in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus made the decision that He was willing to go to the cross in order to crush the devil once and for all, but before he could do that, he had to be willing to be crushed by the weight and the agony of sin.
Good Friday is only good because of the fruit it produced in the form of Jesus’ resurrection and redemption of humanity. There is no Easter without a dark Friday. It is only in retrospect that we call that first Friday, “good”. It is also in retrospect that we can look back at our lives and call something that was painful, hurtful, and unjust as good. We call it good because God’s mighty hand delivered us and brought us to a new place in our relationship to Him. He chose to love us, freed us from the bondage of sin, and brought us to a safe refuge in Him.
Let’s celebrate this day with complete appreciation for Jesus’ love and sacrifice for us, and let us be encouraged that God always has the last say in His children’s lives. When we surrender ourselves to Him, He can bring about something powerful out of a painful season of our lives! Amen!
But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; Exodus 18:21-22a
The above scripture highlights several characteristics that are important in Godly governmental leaders.
Capable: Leaders should have the ability/experience to do the job. They are not just spiritual people but are skilled as well. As believers, we should look for excellence in our leaders as it comes to their capability. We should also train up our children to be skilled in their work as Joseph and Daniel were in the Kings’ courts. Are we looking for leaders who are capable to take on the big responsibility of running our great nation?
Trustworthy: Unfortunately, this is not an important criteria for leadership nowadays. However, as believers, we need to hold the plumb line and not ignore God’s standard. Leaders cannot have duplicity in their words and actions. They should be individuals who are trusted and respected by their spouse, their colleagues, and the public at large. Leaders should not have shady dealings or associations that could cast a shadow of doubt on their integrity.
Unfortunately, in the political climate of our times, there is much mudslinging going on between presidential candidates. Then people feel the need to take a side with one of the candidates and attack the opposing one. As believers, we should not tolerate or excuse anyone’s shady dealings. That’s a character issue. Getting into the position should be secondary to the candidates’ moral integrity and character.
Hate Dishonest gain: Another important character trait is that Godly leaders hate dishonest gain. If someone hates something, they will stay as far away from it as possible. They will not get close to the edge of a boundary to get tempted. They don’t partake in questionable activities that makes people wonder how they gained their wealth.
Our democratic type of system keep us immune from corrupt and autocratic leaders. However, our costly presidential campaigns, open the door to special interest groups to pour large sums of money in the political engine. Some of those donors are doing it in the hopes of legislations that will benefit their agendas. We need individuals in the legislative and executive branch who are willing to care about the will of God first and the will of the American people second.
I will share about one of the most important qualities of a Godly governmental leader in the next devotional.
I teach American Government to Seniors in high school, and we have many conversations about current presidential candidates, party debates, and the ongoing primaries happening right now. This week, I decided to slow down and help students examine what God says about character qualities of a governmental leader. The Bible has quite a few scriptures about leadership.
Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth. Numbers 12:3
In his early years, Moses was an impatient and rough person, which led him to killing an Egyptian to defend an Israelite, but the Bible calls Moses the most humble man on the earth! God picked Moses and processed him for years before he was ready for the great responsibility of leading Israel out of bondage. Moses was eighty years old when he began his leadership role. Do we really think someone in his thirties or forties is processed enough to be ready for the huge task of presidency!?
The context of the above scripture was about Moses’ family criticizing him for marrying an Ethiopian woman. Moses did not defend himself but God did. God chose to defend Moses by rebuking his family for speaking negatively about this man.
picture from thestoryofliberty.net
God is looking for humble leaders to take charge over a nation. A humble person doesn’t get offended easily and neither does he/she rush into judgment by attacking others. Moses patiently and humbly led the grumbling Israelites for forty years in the desert. However, the one time he disobeyed the Lord by hitting the rock rather than speaking to the rock, he was chastised by God for not representing Him properly before the people. Moses lost the chance to take the people to the Promised Land.
I wonder if our governmental leaders ask the question, “Is God pleased with how I represent Him before the people?” Could it be that our leaders have not had much success because their overall objective has been to represent their political party rather than the Lord?
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10: 23-25
Another key element in remaining spiritually healthy is in regularly assembling together with other believers. God has designed us to be in a community of believers. In the natural, when people isolate themselves, they begin to get depressed and develop all kinds of wrong ideas about life and others. Similarly, as Christians we are designed to be part of a community of believers to remain healthy spiritually and avoid deception. The Lord did not design us to do our spiritual walk alone. We were never intended to be lone rangers in the Kingdom of God.
Ironically, as Christians we yearn to reach the lost and tell them how Jesus can change their lives and their relationships, but at the same time we can have major issues with some people in the church. We cannot isolate our ministry from our relationships. Our lives need to be integrated to the level that we don’t have the “good compartment” and the “not so good compartment” in our lives.
The above scripture tells us that the precursor in not forsaking the spiritual relationships is to stir up love and good works amongst ourselves. If we are able to do this, then we will have a healthy and pleasant atmosphere. If we neglect to stir up love and good works, our hearts begin to get hardened towards our brothers and sisters, and after a while we find ourselves avoiding certain people. When the avoidance continues for a period of time, it eventually leads us not to desire having fellowship with the “church people”.
The writer of book of Hebrews exhorts the believers in continually assembling together as the “Day is approaching”. The world will continue to grow darker as we move towards the end times. This should cause us to be more mindful of having the loving support of other believers to navigate and remain courageous through tough times. The scripture tells us that many will fall away from faith in the last days. Is it possible because they were isolated that they could not handle the persecution and the rejection of the world?
Paul likened the church to a body and described how every part, regardless of its visibility, contributes to the health of the entire body (See 1Corinthians 12:12-31). We can be very talented and anointed in certain areas, but we still need the community of believers to grow together, to fellowship, to serve, and to support each other. While Paul himself was a very gifted man, he always longed to be with the saints as he stated in many of his letters.
I will be the first to tell you that relationships in the church are not always easy. As a matter of fact, they can be very hurtful. However, I cannot create a theology based on my experience rather I want to experience what is theologically true according to the word of God. Let’s pray and ask the Lord to help us to be contributors of love and good works among believers and let God do His work to purify and mature us as the body of Christ!
Our thoughts and words are two other elements in our spiritual health. They are really tied together as a two-sided coin!
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11
Paul describes a childish behavior by outward indicator of one’s speech and an inward indicator of one’s understanding and thoughts. If our words are childish, they stem from childish thoughts and understanding.
Our words are a good indicator of the type of thoughts we entertain as well as the prism by which we see the people and the circumstances around us.For example, if we have a tendency to feel like a victim when others disregard or shun us, it can generally lead us to gossip or complaining about them. It is in those instances that we need to make a decision not to entertain those kinds of thoughts. If our thoughts don’t change in that area, we will continue to use our words to describe ourselves as victims and complain about others who treat us wrong.
If we want to remain healthy spiritually we need to face the truth that we can’t change anyone except our response to them. There will always be people who will push our buttons and make us feel less. The sheer fact of letting other people have control over us can cause a great feeling of victimization.
A sign of healthy spiritual growth will be in the way we think or speak about ourselves and others. Our relationships are a good indicator of how well we use our words and our thoughts. If we have ongoing struggles in relationships, we should wonder how healthy we are spiritually.
Spiritual health should have an impact on the quality of our relationship with others. If we find ourselves in continual conflict always frustrated by others’ behavior but not coming to a resolution of a problem, we should ask ourselves: “Has the word of God done any pruning of my choice of words? Am I allowing others to control my spiritual health? Am I convicted of how I speak about others? Do I passively allow my mind to think whatever it wishes about others? What does it take for me to grow up in these areas?”
In addition to feeding on the word of God, another key to good spiritual health is to remember where God has brought us from.
Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Isaiah 46:9
The act of remembrance is very important especially for those of us who have been walking with the Lord for decades. It is easy to take the stability of our lives for granted or forget the struggles we used to have. We all have had different issues such as anger, resentment, lust, fear, arrogance, unforgiveness, financial debt, and addictions, which kept us in bondage. Remembering where we have come from, keeps us humble and immune from self-righteousness that can so easily entangle us!
Generally, people don’t like to be around self-righteous Christians because they seem harsh, critical, and unsympathetic. When we remember where God has brought us from, it gives us greater compassion towards those who are struggling with serious issues.
Remembering the kindness of God which led us to repentance, can help us to be gentle and kind with those who need the Lord. This doesn’t negate the times when individuals require tough love to challenge them to growth and maturity. However, our approach will not stem from a self-righteous attitude, but it will be spirit led to help the person to come to a higher place in their spiritual walk.
During the Last Supper with His disciples, Jesus instituted the Communion as an act of remembrance. He desired for us to continually remember what He did for us. It is important to remember Jesus’ work on the cross on our behalf. His body was beaten and His blood was shed for us to wash us clean from all our past sins. He healed us, gave us a new nature, and a new chance in life!
Today, let’s take a moment and remember the work of Jesus on the cross, and where God has brought us from. Thank Him for all that He has done in your life to bring you to this point. He is awesome and worthy of all our praise!
A Christian life is a dynamic and organic life. It is one which necessitates growth because life is full of change and challenges. What we knew yesterday or experienced a year ago does not meet the demands of today. Our roles change and our relationships are in continual flux. We not only grow in knowledge over time, but we grow in experience, discernment, and sophistication. Nevertheless spiritual growth is not automatic. We can grow old without growing in maturity. We can be a Christian for decades but spiritually speaking have a maturity of a baby!
In the past year, I reconnected on Facebook with a friend after 25 years. He sent me a note telling me how much he enjoys my posts on my Facebook page (Know His Ways). He was glad that I have remained in faith while many he knew have fallen away from faith. It was a kind gesture concerning my life. However, it made me sad that so many people whom he knew do not follow the Lord in a living and personal way. I wonder if his friends would perceive themselves that way! This caused me to think, “What can we do to ensure we maintain a healthy spiritual life?” This will be the subject of the next few devotionals.
And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. John 6:35
The first and foremost importance in having a healthy spiritual life is a regular intake of the “bread of Life” and the “living waters”. Studying the Word of God, listening to the Holy Spirit, and praying are ways that we can nurture our spirit man. This is essential to every believer; no church attendance or ministry involvement can take the place of a personal interaction with God. Christians can sometimes be so busy doing the work of the ministry that they forget about the source of ministry and the reason we are here in the first place.
The challenge with lack of spiritual food & drink is that malnourishment is gradual and cannot measured objectively. Spiritual malnourishment can go on for months and years undetected but subtly affecting the life of the believer and causing their faith to crumble.
The best indicator of a healthy spiritual life is the hunger for the Word of God and the desire to pray. If the hunger goes away, then there is a great likelihood that we are losing our spiritual health.
I will continue with this subject in the next devotional.
This is a continuation of pondering Samson’s life. His life was marked by series of outbursts, battles, victories, and some defeats. Surprisingly despite his lack of self-control, he was able to keep his Nazirite vow. He did not cut his hair nor did he touch wine as far as we know. However, he did pollute himself with dead animals which would have been a violation of Leviticus laws. He also joined himself with a prostitute (See Judges 16:1-3); later he went after a woman called Delilah who seduced him to tell her the secret of his strength.
We need to pause for a moment and think about Samson as a leader and a judge of Israelites. This man served God for twenty years! That’s a long time. If you were a fellow Jewish person during his era, would you have respected him? Would you have considered him a leader and a judge?
In today’s Christianity, we can so easily get disenchanted with Christian leadership, and we don’t usually stop there. Eventually the disenchantment leads to being disappointed with God for allowing faulty leadership to continue to have a negative impact on others. People walk away from church and from faith because some leaders failed them. If I lived in that era, I would have had a very hard time believing that Samson was doing God’s will in spite of his indiscretions and lack of self-Control!
Unfortunately, there are no simple answers to flawed leadership. It is clear that Samson was called into ministry before he was conceived, so there is no doubt that God had a call on him. The issue is, “Did his disobedience make him ineffective? According to below scripture, the answer is, “No.” .
And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Hebrews 11:32-34
In the book of Hebrews, Samson is named among the “Hall of Faith” people who did mighty exploits for God. We can conclude that in spite of all his issues because Samson had faith in God, the Lord chose to use him. His story continues with his eyes being gauged by the enemy because they were able to take away his strength temporarily by cutting his hair. However, at the end, as his hair grew longer, he pulled down walls and killed every Philistine in sight and killing himself (See Judges 16).
Samson fulfilled God’s purpose while his sins led him to get killed as well. Sin always works against us not for us, and destroys the very one who passionately holds on to sin! Sadly, while God’s plans were accomplished, Samson did not appear to have experienced much peace in his life!
The most important lesson we can learn from Samson is that obedience has a greater priority than being used by God! Being effective for God is not necessarily the measure of our spiritual maturity or obedience. God can use anyone. If we are not obedient, we may fulfill God’s purpose, but not have a fulfilling life on the journey!
