I can remember my first trip out of the US, when I took a month long mission’s trip to Peru as part of my internship for Bible College. While there, I was able to visit Machu Pichu, probably some of the most famous archeological ruins in the world. It was amazing to see how advanced their civilization was with sun dials, irrigation systems, and a very detailed calendar. While visiting there, I noticed there were circular indentions in the rock on the ground filled with water. When I asked what they were I was surprised to find out that they used them as mirrors to see their reflection in the water. So even hundreds of years ago, people were concerned with their appearance.
Today that has been multiplied many times over with mirrors everywhere you go and people that are obsessed with how they look. There is one area though, where I think people are not concerned enough with evaluating themselves. That is, with their spiritual reflexion or appearance. This is what James addresses in chapter one where he says “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was”. People can look at themselves in the mirror to try and better their appearance but they don’t take into consideration, at all, how they are spiritually. They see what is wrong in their spiritual lives but do nothing about it. That is why I think that one of the most important characteristics of a leader is sensitivity in their spiritual life and and being willing to evaluate themselves on a regular basis. So here are a few ideas that can help you better see the areas you need to work on in your life.
I. We Must be Honest with Ourselves.
We all have faults and weaknesses and the fact that God can use us as leaders in spite of our faults is a great testament to His grace and mercy. There is never an excuse for when we sin and come short of what God wants with our lives, but we have to realize that we will never be perfect until we get to heaven one day. So what is the answer? The answer is that we must always be recognizing our faults and be constantly working of them. This can be one of the hardest things that we ever do because it is not easy to recognize our faults or even be willing to recognize them. There are two things that I think can help us recognize those areas that we are weak in so that we can grow in them.
A Good Mirror:
The Bible tells us in John chapter sixteen that the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin and lead us into all truth. The Holy Spirit does this principally with the mirror of the Word of God. When we look deeply into the Word, it begins to reveal those things that are lacking. The problem is, at times we are not wiling to listen or are not very sensitive to what the Lord is showing us in His word. Often times we spend so little time in the word that the Holy Spirit doesn’t have much opportunity to work in us. So we must come to Him daily, and to His word, and be honest with ourselves and ask Him to work in our lives and show us where we fail.
Good Counselors:
Another way we can recognize these areas of weakness in our lives is by the help of spiritual mentors that are willing to evaluate and bring to our attention those things that are lacking. They need to have the spiritual maturity and willingness to talk to us about our mistakes and to correct us. We must also be willing to go to people like this and ask them if there is anything in our lives that they see that we need to change and work on. When the Holy Spirit begins to do His work and others begin to show us where we lack, then we need to know how to correct them.
II. We Must look to God and Others to Help us Change.
To often, in life we try and turn over a new leaf or try some new technique just to fail once again. There is a problem with the way we normally try and change those things in our lives that are lacking. We must realize that we can’t do it. While that may come as a shock to you the key is to realize that you can’t do it alone. You must have help. Just like in recognizing our faults, I think we see the same in how we can accomplish that change.
God’s Strength:
Paul in Romans 7, speaks of the struggle that he had on a daily basis with doing what he didn’t want and not doing what he wanted to do. Towards the end of the chapter he says, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”. He realized that the only way to accomplish true change was with the Lord’s help. We must realize that our strength comes from the Lord and we must look to him daily for that strength and guidance and protection.
Other’s Help:
Also I believe that God can use godly men and women in our lives to help us change and grow. This can be done by correcting us as we saw before, but also through instruction and accountability. Often God allows us to go through struggles in life so that we can one day help others and show them how He helped us have victory. Also to keep us on track, it is good to be accountable to others that will keep up with our progress and motivate us to keep going. All in all true change only comes when we stop trying in our own strength and trust in the Lord who will give us the strength to make the necessary changes.
III. We Must be a Growers.
As I get older I realize the importance of staying healthy and how hard that can be. I can work hard to make progress and get stronger and healthier, but the moment I stop, I begin to loose everything that I have gained. In our spiritual lives I think a similar thing happens. I heard it said once that we are never static in our Christian walk. We are either growing stronger or getting weaker. So what happens is, if we are not striving to grow and learn, we begin to grow complaisant and become weaker in our daily walk. So just like in our physical lives we must constantly be growing or we will loose the progress that we have made. In both areas, there are two things that we need to continue growing.
A Good Diet:
Any health expert will tell you that if you want to be healthier, you must have a good diet plan. You must eat more of the things that will promote good health. Likewise we must have a good spiritual diet that will promote healthy spiritual growth. In the world we are constantly consuming or receiving information from television, social media, reading, and from the people we are with. This is why it is so important to have a balanced diet and make sure we are consuming those things that will help us grow. This diet should include good books that we are reading, starting with the Bible. Also blogs and podcasts that will both encourage us and give us great information to use. We should also surround ourselves with people that are going to invest in us and teach us things to helps us both spiritually and in the ministry.
A Good Routine:
The second thing that is needed for good health is exercise. This is probably the hardest part of being healthy because very seldom do we feel like getting out and running or going to the gym. In our spiritual lives it can also be difficult because we don’t take those things that we are learning and put them into practice as we serve the Lord. The problem is that we often let days go by without either “eating healthy”, or “using” those things we are learning. This can result in becoming “overweight” spiritually or as the Bible calls it, “puffed up” from the knowledge that we are consuming. So we need a good plan to both eat healthy spiritually on a regular basis and then get out and serve, using those things to reach others for the Lord.
The key to all this is that when we are growing by consuming and using those things that we consume, we will often see and be able to correct the ares of weakness that we have. There have been many times in my life, that the Lord has used something that I was reading or something that I heard, to really help me where i was failing.
So if we want to be the leader that the Lord has called us to be, we must be willing to take a good look in the mirror, not just once, but on a daily basis, and strive to correct and better those areas that we are lacking in. With the Lord’s help and encouragement of others we can become that leader for His honor and glory. So what are some things things that maybe you have struggled with or have helped you keep tabs on these things in your life?