Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference: Exodus 18:13-27
Delegating Responsibility
As I have studied the Word of God concerning leadership, I have come to certain conclusions about spiritual principles of good leadership. These principles can be applied not only by leaders of organizations but by Sunday school teachers or by anyone with responsibility.
First, God uses people to do His work. When He has a job to do, He calls an individual to do it. Remember, however, that it took Moses a long time to become prepared for his task, and it sometimes takes leaders today a long time to be prepared for their tasks.
Second, when the task becomes too much for the one person God originally called, He calls others to work with the first individual.
Third, God holds the first individual responsible for the work done by the other individuals. This principle applies especially to the spiritual aspects of the work.
This principle was particularly evident in Moses' leadership. Even though responsibility and authority could be delegated to others, he was still directly responsible before God.
God knows what work He wants accomplished, and He gives individuals responsibilities in order to accomplish that work. The only way that God's work can be done effectively is for individual believers to know what God wants them to do.
"But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him" (1 Cor. 12:18).
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Monday, May 08, 2006
Distractions to Prayer
As mentioned in a previous blog, I've been working on my prayer life. It is awesome how God knows what we need and then puts what we need in out path. I get several e-mail devotionals. I try to stop the chaos of my life when I discover them in my inbox and take the time to read and ponder over them for a minute or two. Sometimes I find myself looking at exactly what I need at that minute. I got this today and couldn't believe how this was the very thing I was struggling with. Last night it seemed like my mind was going in 100 different directions as I tried to pray. No matter what, it seemed that my prayers kept getting derailed. I was frustrated and didn't know what to do. I really needed the encouragement I found in my inbox when I got up this morning. All I can say is, "Isn't this just like God?"
Distractions to Prayer by Elizabeth Elliot
No one who has tried to pray for more than a few seconds at a time would claim that he is never distracted. It is astonishing to note how insistently and immediately irrelevant matters come to mind, noises occur, things to be attended to are remembered, people interrupt, and even physical discomforts or pains bother us which we had not noticed until we tried to pray. These things are, of course, the work of the master saboteur of souls, who knows how to render our spiritual machinery useless, by the loosening of the tiniest screw or the loss of the smallest nut.
Distractions can be useful. They provide constant reminders of our human weakness. We recognize in them how earthbound we are, and then how completely we must depend on the help of the Holy Spirit to pray in and through us. We are shown, by a thousand trivialities, how trivial are our concerns. The very effort to focus, even for a minute, on higher things, is foiled, and we see that prayer--the prerequisite for doing anything for God--cannot be done without Him. We are not, however, left to fend for ourselves.
"The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God" (Romans 8:26-27 JB).
Distractions to Prayer by Elizabeth Elliot
No one who has tried to pray for more than a few seconds at a time would claim that he is never distracted. It is astonishing to note how insistently and immediately irrelevant matters come to mind, noises occur, things to be attended to are remembered, people interrupt, and even physical discomforts or pains bother us which we had not noticed until we tried to pray. These things are, of course, the work of the master saboteur of souls, who knows how to render our spiritual machinery useless, by the loosening of the tiniest screw or the loss of the smallest nut.
Distractions can be useful. They provide constant reminders of our human weakness. We recognize in them how earthbound we are, and then how completely we must depend on the help of the Holy Spirit to pray in and through us. We are shown, by a thousand trivialities, how trivial are our concerns. The very effort to focus, even for a minute, on higher things, is foiled, and we see that prayer--the prerequisite for doing anything for God--cannot be done without Him. We are not, however, left to fend for ourselves.
"The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God" (Romans 8:26-27 JB).
Monday, May 01, 2006
Pray with Jesus by Elizabeth Elliot
I've been working a lot on prayer and devotion in my Christian walk. I know I'm coming through a spell where I have been more distant from Christ than I should be. 'Stuff' was piling up and I tried to handle it all on my own instead of giving it over to God and letting him be in control. I guess I figured that God was busy taking care of the worlds troubles so he didn't need to be bothered with my issues. (This is something I struggle with from time to time.) You would think that I would learn that I am no good at juggling...that when I try to do it all, 'keep all the balls in the air' as it were, I fail and it all comes falling down. THEN I run to the feet of God, throw myself at his mercy and sob, 'Hi God...it's me. I screwed up, again. Help?!' Maybe not the most eloquent or theological of prayers but it is honest. And God is faithful, isn't that just like him?, and he rescues me...He helps fix the mess. His mercy knows no bounds.
Speaking of 'mercy', Nancy Kennedy (a PCA author) lives in my area and writes a weekly column in our local paper (The Citrus County Chronicle...check it out!). She wrote about mercy this past weekend (well, it was more than that but mercy was part of it) and talked about how she misspelled mercy 'mecry'. That sometimes mercy does that to us...puts us on our knees and we cry. Her words really hit me. It was as if God was speaking right to me. His mercy know no limits. How could that thought alone not bring me to tears?
The below devotional came across my path today. Isn't it amazing how God sends us just what we need?
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Because I am "of the earth, earthy," I find that my prayers for the people I love are mostly bound by very earthy concerns--Lord, help P. to find a good wife, show G. which college to attend, provide money for W.'s house and E.'s car, help T. with his book, give X. a better job. It is meet and proper to pray for such things, but not to pray only for such things. There are prayers of far more lasting import which we must also learn to pray. We can find words for those in the prayer of Jesus for the people He loved:
1. that they may be one;
2. that they may find his joy completed in themselves;
3. that they may be kept from evil;
4. that they may be made holy by the truth;
5. that they may live in Christ;
6. that they may grow complete into one;
7. that they may be with him;
8. that the love which God has for Christ may be in their hearts.
If we learn to pray that kind of prayer, it will perhaps amend the "lesser" prayers.
Lord, teach me to pray. Open my eyes to see beyond the earthly to the heavenly. Let my primary concerns be heavenly ones, that your kingdom may come on earth, your will be done in me and in those I love. Teach me to pray with Jesus, for his sake. Amen.
Speaking of 'mercy', Nancy Kennedy (a PCA author) lives in my area and writes a weekly column in our local paper (The Citrus County Chronicle...check it out!). She wrote about mercy this past weekend (well, it was more than that but mercy was part of it) and talked about how she misspelled mercy 'mecry'. That sometimes mercy does that to us...puts us on our knees and we cry. Her words really hit me. It was as if God was speaking right to me. His mercy know no limits. How could that thought alone not bring me to tears?
The below devotional came across my path today. Isn't it amazing how God sends us just what we need?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because I am "of the earth, earthy," I find that my prayers for the people I love are mostly bound by very earthy concerns--Lord, help P. to find a good wife, show G. which college to attend, provide money for W.'s house and E.'s car, help T. with his book, give X. a better job. It is meet and proper to pray for such things, but not to pray only for such things. There are prayers of far more lasting import which we must also learn to pray. We can find words for those in the prayer of Jesus for the people He loved:
1. that they may be one;
2. that they may find his joy completed in themselves;
3. that they may be kept from evil;
4. that they may be made holy by the truth;
5. that they may live in Christ;
6. that they may grow complete into one;
7. that they may be with him;
8. that the love which God has for Christ may be in their hearts.
If we learn to pray that kind of prayer, it will perhaps amend the "lesser" prayers.
Lord, teach me to pray. Open my eyes to see beyond the earthly to the heavenly. Let my primary concerns be heavenly ones, that your kingdom may come on earth, your will be done in me and in those I love. Teach me to pray with Jesus, for his sake. Amen.
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