As I look back on my own life, I can see that, although these times of testing seemed very painful at the time, I now recognise how significant they were in preparing me for what lay ahead.
This is all part of God’s economy – it was ‘the Spirit’ who sent Jesus into the desert (v.12) to ‘be tempted by Satan’ (v.13). In some ways, the ‘desert’ times and fierce temptations give an assurance that it really is true. The experience of the Holy Spirit is real but at the same time the spiritual battle and testing may be intense.
Whatever you are going through, believe that God is preparing you and giving you an increasing authority for whatever it is that he is calling you to do.
Ask him to fill you again with the Holy Spirit. Be assured that, in Christ, you too are a child of God. He loves you. Know that God looks at you with pleasure. Listen to his voice saying to you: ‘You are my [child], whom I love; with you I am well pleased’ (v.11).
Trying to do everything yourself is ‘not good’ (v.17). It is a bad form of leadership and leads to exhaustion: ‘You’ll burn out’ (v.18, MSG). It also leads to the underutilisation of other people’s gifts, time and ability. They are likely to get frustrated and so are you.
However, delegation in itself will not solve the problem. We need the right leaders. If you delegate to the wrong people, no amount of micromanaging will solve the problems. If you get the right leaders you can trust them, release them and empower them.
Moses follows Jethro’s advice. He uses three criteria when selecting and appointing leaders. First, he chose capable people (v.21a). We need people of ability in order to have confidence as we delegate. Second, he chose leaders on the basis of their spirituality – those who ‘fear God’ (v.21b). The third criterion was character. We need people who are ‘trustworthy’ (v.21c) – loyal, discreet and reliable.
No comments:
Post a Comment