Category: Leadership

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7 Lessons I’ve Learned Leading a Multi-site Church Campus.

Over the last two months I have had the privilege of leading one of our church campuses through a transition from a portable church at a Middle school to a new permanent site in a nearby city.  This has been a fun, exciting time and a real growth time for me personally.  Since taking this new role at NewPointe Community Church I have been learning some things and putting some things into practice that I have learned over the years about leadership.  This is what I have been learning and by no means do I think I know it all.  I love to learn from other leader’s and have followed many over my career.  These lessons are stretching me and shaping me into the leader God is calling me to be.

  1. Relationships are more important than Systems – Effective, well thought out systems are vital to an organizations health, but people are more important.  Every person that attends the campus I lead is important.  Each person matters to God and so they must matter to me.  When going through explosive growth it’s easy to miss the relational part of ministry.  That is when you must work hard to meet with people and listen to them.  I have learned so much by simple meeting with people and listening to them.  I know that I have not done as good of job as I could have in this area, so I plan on working harder to connect with more people over the next month.
  2. Communicate with your team often – Even when there is nothing new to report, it’s important to communicate with your team on a regular basis.  As a leader, I wake up every day thinking about what needs to happen to get where we are headed.  The volunteers I am leading have many other things to think about, like their own jobs and families.  The more I can communicate about what is going on, the better my relationship with the people I lead.  Open honest communication builds trust, it also motivates and encourages and allows people to ask clarifying questions.
  3. Trust that God is working in ways you do not see – In ministry, things don’t always line up like you would like them to be.  As a leader, I am responsible for my own actions and to make plans and develop strategy.  It is also my responsibility to be flexible and to include God in everything.  The deeper my trust in God the stronger my faith grows.  If we figure everything out on our own, we don’t need God to show up.  When you take on a big vision, only God can make it happen, we need to trust and obey.
  4. Trust the leaders around you – I must choose to trust and not to be suspicious of the leaders above me.  The more I choose to trust the more my heart remains in the right place.  When I start to fill in the blanks with my own ideas, I begin to head into a downward spiral.  When I believe the best about the people leading me, I can then lead with integrity and passion.  Trust builds a culture of emotional health and stability.
  5. Do more than rally the troops – You must do more than talk the talk, you need to walk the walk and make things happen.  That means doing what you say and equipping your volunteers to do what they are asked to do.  It means taking the time to develop people rather than just direct people.  When you build meaningful relationships with people they will follow you through the most difficult of times.  When you pay attention to the details and delegate to people that can get things done your influence goes up.  Don’t just try to pump people up, pour into them and love them.  The only way to do that is by allowing God to pour into you and to keep growing as a leader.
  6. You have to be real – People are looking for real leaders that admit their mistakes and take responsibility.  Be quick to admit mistakes and ask for forgiveness and extend the same to others.  Don’t put on the religious mask, where you try to make people think that everything is just perfect.  That is only possible if you are sure of your identity and comfortable with who you are.  I have learned that I need to be me and not someone I think people want.  The more I am the person God created me to be to more influence God give me.
  7. Be as clear as possible – Clarity is one of the most difficult things to do as a leader.  It is easy to dance around the issues and not give direct answers.  Sometimes there are things that I just cannot share with people, so I need to be honest about that and let them know that I will share details when I can.  To be clear as a leader means taking time to think about what you are going to say.  It means you can’t just shoot from the hip, but take time to aim before delivering the message.  Being clear is a way of honoring people and letting them know you care.

When things are changing all around me and the pace seems to be higher than what I can stand, it helps to step back and trust God and obey what he tells me.  When things are busy and hectic I need to make sure that I am praying and communicating with God.  I also need to be reading the Bible to build my intimacy with God and get wisdom and direction.  One thing that has helped me in this area and many others is having two guys I meet with weekly to ask me how I am doing in some of these areas.  Having accountability in my life has brought growth and freedom into my life.

Lead On!

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10 Tips for a Healthy Marriage

Nearly everyone that gets married, goes in wanting to be happy and stay married for the rest of their lives.  So what happens along the way to cause people to end up hating each other or frustrated to the point of divorce?  Why does verbal, physical and emotional abuse happen so often in marriages that started out with so much hope?

Most people that end up getting married, don’t put much work in on the front end.  They may date for a while and many people are now pretending to be married, thinking that is a good way to prepare for marriage.  Unfortunately the results have been dismal.  Couples that live together have a much greater chance of divorce than those that do not.  Couples that do not go through some pre-marital mentoring or counseling have a much higher chance of not making it.  So for people that are thinking about getting married, go get some help in preparing for this lifelong commitment.  Why wouldn’t you get some training for the biggest relationship commitment you will ever make.

For those that are already married and maybe did not put a lot of work in at the beginning, it’s not too late.  Marriages can be improved dramatically with some work and a different perspective.  Here are some tips or thoughts on how to build a happy marriage:

  1. Change your expectations to desires – Marriage is not so much about you, but about serving and loving your spouse well.  If you are looking at your husband or wife to meet all your needs and make you happy, you are heading toward failure and disappoint.  No human being can meet all our needs and make us happy.  Only God can do that.  Many times we put too high of expectations on our spouse and then are upset when they don’t live up to that.  Instead of expecting certain behavior, change your mindset to desiring certain behavior.  When you see it happen it is more meaningful.  That shift in thinking can change your marriage.
  2. Learn to love well – To love well, a person must understand what speaks love to their spouse.  If you do not understand what is meaningful and special to your spouse, you can be doing the wrong things and actually be hurting your marriage.  Gary Chapman wrote a book called the “Five Love Languages”.  He describes 5 ways of communicating love to another person.  Those languages are; Acts of Service, Words of Affirmation, Physical Touch, Gifts and Quality Time.  Everyone has one or two of those that are more meaningful than others.  Find out what your spouses language is and what yours is and then sit down and talk about it with your spouse.
  3. Focus on growing yourself, not changing your spouse – The more you try to change your spouse the worse it usually gets.  The only thing you have control over is yourself.  When you focus on problems or the shortcomings of your spouse, you are no longer working on your own issues or growing closer to God.  Seek out a mentor or someone that can help you work on your own issues.
  4. Deepen your relationship with God – To have a happy marriage, it will take more than what you have on your own.  When you develop your relationship with God, He gives you strength, courage and wisdom you can’t get on your own.  When you grow spiritually, you grow relationally with others as well.
  5. Bring God into your Marriage – Spiritual intimacy in a marriage relationship is one of the biggest keys to happiness and contentment in marriage.  Making God central in your marriage builds a solid foundation.  Praying together, going to church together, going to small group together, reading the Bible & devotions together and having spiritual conversations together will build that intimacy.  If your spouse is not where you are at spiritually, don’t force this on them.  Instead pray silently for them regularly and demonstrate your faith by loving them well and serving them as best you can.
  6. Build Emotional Intimacy – This is all about being best friends.  Connecting with each other through meaningful conversations, doing fun things together and just hanging out.  This usually happens through the dating process, but often slows down after the marriage.  Start dating again and work at becoming friends again.
  7. Prioritize Physical Intimacy – This area of marriage often get neglected as life gets busy.  Children, work, family functions and children’s activities can keep married people from having enough physical intimacy.  Take time to plan for this if needed.  God designed sex for marriage for a reason.  It was meant to increase closeness and intimacy.  It is a way of serving each other and surrendering yourself to the other person.  Physical intimacy is much better when the emotional and spiritual intimacy are doing well.
  8. Always believe the best about your spouse – When you always think the best about your spouse instead of assuming the worse, you are more likely to be happily married.  Trust is essential in marriage.  Honesty and openness in marriage leads the way to trust.  Connecting emotionally, spiritually and physically helps to deepen trust and belief in your spouse.  When your first response is to believe the best instead of assume the worse, it leads to a better line of thinking.  Less suspicion and more trust.  When trust is broken though, boundaries need to be put into place in order to re-establish trust.
  9. Listen  – Most people are really poor listeners.  When it comes to marriage it can get even worse.  If you will simply work at becoming a better listener, your marriage will begin to improve.  Listening takes more than just paying attention.  It means to actually try to understand what is being said and being able to repeat it back.  It means you follow through on what is discussed.  In other words listening needs to be active, letting your spouse know you are truly interested and want to understand and then acting on what you hear.  First trying to understand before being understood leads to good listening.
  10. Think Team – Your on the same team not on opposite sides.  Team mates need to communicate well with each other and work together through whatever problems come your way.  Problem solving becomes a joint effort instead of one sided.  To function as a team you need to know your role and understand how you best contribute to the success of the marriage.  The approach should always be we not me.

These ten things are not the only things that help build a solid marriage, but they can get you started.  Marriage takes work to be successful.  A selfish person does not make a very good husband or wife.  Pride and arrogance leads to destruction.  So if your marriage is a mess or struggling along, humble yourself and get some help.  If your marriage is doing well and you have worked through some struggles, then you need to help others work on their marriages.

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Listen, Can You Hear?

Every day God calls us by name and asks us to follow Him.  He offers all of Himself to us and is ready to give us everything we need to succeed that day.  Yet for most of us, we do not hear His voice.  We hear many voices everyday, they are calling for our attention.  The noise inside of us keeps us from hearing the one voice that can change everything.  Our minds can handle a lot of data, images and messages.  It’s like a supercomputer on steroids.  However, our minds can also stay so busy thinking about problems, fears, what if’s, ourselves and other people that we have no time for God.

Most people live pretty busy, hectic lives.  We try to balance Family and work and then squeeze God in when we can.  What if our mindset would change tomorrow morning, to waking up expecting to hear God’s voice.  What if we could quiet our minds and instead just focus on being with God to listen to His instruction and His guidance.  At first this may feel awkward and we may not hear anything and be easily distracted by all the stuff of the coming day.  But over time as we practice being silent and listening, God’s voice will start to come through clearer and more often.  His voice will begin to be louder than all the others that are trying to get and keep our attention.

Here are some practical ways we can listen and hear what God is telling us each day:

  • Start filling your mind with Scripture.  The more truth you fill your mind with the louder God’s voice becomes.  Several things we can do include:
  1. Devotional Reading – daily readings on practical application of Scripture.
  2. Study – Reading to discover what the words meant when they were written.  A good study Bible helps a lot.
  3. Memorization – This helps us to take to heart God’s word and these verses come back to us at important times.  We can all do this if we set our minds to it.  It helps to do it with someone.  I do this with a group of guys every month.  We have memorized 16 Verses over the last 8 months!
  4. Meditation – This is simply turning a Scripture over and over again in our minds.  This can be part of our memorization process.  The idea is to take God’s word and think about it and roll it around for a while, really letting it soak into every part of us.
  5. Hear the Word – Hopefully this happens at Church every Sunday, but we can also look for other ways of hearing the Word, through online messages, CD’s and radio.
  6. Doing the Word – Living out God’s word is one of the most powerful things we can do.  It can also be the hardest.  It’s one thing to hear it, memorize and think about it, it’s another to go do it every day.
  • Start planning times when you can slow down and switch gears.  Finding time for quiet reflection can be hard, but worth it.  When you get that time, ask God to speak and promise to listen.  This won’t happen unless you schedule it.
  • Trust God and Obey Him – When our minds start racing and we start worrying or being fearful, tell God you trust Him and will obey Him.  Trusting God starts with complete surrender and giving Him control of everything.
  • Get involved with a community of believers – We all need some people close enough to us to speak truth into our lives and to share at a deeper level.  God often speaks through other people, but we have to be careful what people we listen to.  Start praying now for God to bring the right people into your life.
  • Pray a lot – The more we talk with God the closer we get to Him.  Having conversations with God helps us to hear from Him.  Don’t do all the talking though.  Praise Him, Thank Him, Confess to Him, Ask Him and Intercede for others, but then stop and listen for what or who He brings to your mind.
  • Finally, when you ask God to speak and you have a thought, ask God if that is from Him or not. As we put more of God’s Word into our minds we get much better at filtering what is from God and what is from ourselves or the world.  We may even need to talk with someone else about what you think God is telling you.

Listening well means that your attention and focus is completely on that person.  It means that when someone speaks to you, you can repeat back what was said.  Listening well to God means that we are paying attention and can ask questions to clarify what we think He is saying.  It means that we are pursuing truth to the best of our ability and obeying what we hear by doing it.


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Blessed, Satisfied & Successful

Those are words that most people would want to say about their lives.  When we are feeling blessed, satisfied and successful, we are most likely going to be happy and content.  However in order to achieve those things in our lives there needs to be some other qualities in our lives.  Here are three thoughts about how to be blessed, satisfied and successful:

  1. You must be broken in order to be blessed.  In order to receive God’s blessing in our lives, we often must go through a period of brokenness.  When we go through difficult times, it often brings us to our knees and our pride is stripped away.  This is when we remove the distractions and desperately seek God for help.  When we allow God to break us, we can experience breakthroughs in our life.  When we stop pretending and get real with God by admitting our weakness and our dependence on Him, we can experience blessing on the other side.  Brokenness is painful yet that pain can bring about a transformation that leads to blessing if we stay on the path God has for us.
  2. You must Surrender in order to be satisfied. Satisfaction comes when we surrender to God and allow Him to have control.  When we can stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting in Him, our level of peace and satisfaction will increase.  Without surrender, we remain in control and we will continue to struggle, hurt and mess up if we are trying to control the world around us.  Surrender involves a decision to turn everything over to God.  Everything includes our finances, our marriages, our friendships, our children, our work, our free time, our ministry, our relationships, our hobbies, our possessions, our attitudes, our emotions and our minds.
  3. You need to sacrifice in order to succeed. John Maxwell has a saying that you have to give up in order to go up.  Sacrifice is necessary to succeed in any area of life.  In marriage, it takes sacrifice in order to love and serve your spouse.  Selfishness will destroy any relationship, so the person that is willing to sacrifice can find success and healthy relationships as a result.  To succeed in any area of life it takes sacrifice and hard work.  When we bring God into the picture, He can give us the strength we need to sacrifice and humble ourselves in order to bring success.   Success is not about performing better, it’s about being willing to sacrifice in the short-term in order to be successful in the long-term.

God desires to have a personal, growing relationship with all people.  He is the one that can bring blessing into our lives.  He is the one that can bring satisfaction and success.  Having a relationship with God does not mean we will have no problems, there will be problems and pain in our lives.  A relationship with God means that we have an all powerful, all knowing, loving heavenly father that will always be with us through every trial and triumph in our lives.  He equips us to make it through the storms of life and emerge blessed, satisfied and successful despite those storms.

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Six Questions about Spiritual Leadership

Spiritual leadership means giving up yourself for someone else.  Why would a leader do that?  Isn’t leadership about being out in front and getting people to follow you?  I believe leadership is more than that.  As a Spiritual Leader I have a responsibility to lead myself, my family, my friends, my employees, co-workers and my superiors.  This can be a challenging thing to do, because all of us tend to think more about ourselves and our own needs rather than the needs of others. It does not come naturally to give yourself up and think more about the other person.  Our natural response is to look out for ourselves.

In marriage we get upset and discouraged when our love language is not being spoken by our spouse.  At work we are concerned about our job, position on the org chart and how much we are making.  We focus on the things we are responsible for and can tend to protect our turf.  We think a lot about how we look physically and can spend a lot of time on ourselves in general.  We want our friends to listen to us and hang out when we want to hang out.

Here are six great questions every Spiritual Leader should ask on a regular basis.

  1. Do I give direction and take responsibility for my primary relationships?  This is about my initiative.
  2. Do I experience intimacy with God and others through open, honest conversations?  This is about my level of intimacy.
  3. Do I exercise Biblical influence by encouraging and developing others?  This is about my influence.
  4. Do I lead an honest life, unashamed of who I am when no one is looking?  This is about my integrity and character.
  5. Am I secure in who I am in Christ, or am I defensive?  This is about understanding my true identity.
  6. Do I exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in my life, including self-discipline?  This is about my heart and motives.

If you are a Christian, then you are a Spiritual Leader.  Take responsibility today to lead well no matter where you are or what you are doing.

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Empowering Others

One of the phrases that I often pray is this “God pour into me, so that I can pour into others.”  I believe one of the things God calls us to do is to take what He has given us and give it to others.  Many times this comes through the experiences of life, the good ones and the bad ones.  God also gives gifts to His children that we can use to pour into others.  Finally he gives us skills and abilities that are unique to us, again in order to pour into others and make a difference for God in this world.  If we are open to God using us as His instruments, our influence will grow and our tribe will increase.  If we remain humble and meek, we will accelerate how God uses us to pour into others.

In 2 Corinthians 1:2-4 the Message Bible says this “All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah!  Father of all mercy!  God of all healing counsel!  He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.”

God promises to comfort us in our troubles, then asks us to share that comfort with others.  Remember, we can’t give away what we don’t possess.  We are to pass on what God gives to us.  We don’t receive only for our benefit, but for the benefit of others.  God calls us to empower others with the power that He gave us.  Here are some practical ways that we can pour into others:

  1. Help someone keep their commitments to God and other people (Accountability)
  2. Speak words of encouragement and support (Affirmation)
  3. Evaluate their progress and offer an objective perspective of their situation (Assessment)
  4. Offer words of wise counsel and direction (Advice)
  5. Share words of caution, rebuke, or correction as needed (Admonishment)
  6. Point them to resources that can help them reach their goals (Assets)
  7. Love them unconditionally, regardless of their past or current situation (Acceptance)
  8. Coach them on how to go put into practice what they have learned (Application)

God always gives us what we need to lead.  Our own baggage and insecurities often keep us from taking the step to pour into others.  It is easy to make excuses about not being ready or being too busy.  These excuses most often stem from our core fears.  Fear of failure, fear of not knowing the right answers and looking dumb, fear of rejection, fear of being misunderstood.  In 2 Timothy 1:7-8 it says “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  These three tools help us pour into others:

  • Love – The relational ingredient that enables us to attract and connect with others.
  • Power – The courage and competence to get the job done.
  • Sound Mind – The perspective and wisdom to grasp a vision and take the right steps.

God gave us everything we need to accomplish the job.  He empowers us before He ever expects from us.  He gives before He demands.  We receive His competence before we receive His commands.  So start asking God to pour into you, so that you can pour into others.

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Journal Entries from 2002

Today I was reading through some of my old journal entries from 2002. It was fun to read some of things I wrote, the prayers I wrote down, the Scriptures I was reading and the struggles I was going through. I also was reminded of some of the prayers that God has answered in my life. I thought I would share a few of the entries:

November 8, 2002:

Our time here on earth is very short. That is why each day must be lived to the fullest. Each day we must strive to serve God the best that we can. It may be only small insignificant things like writing letters, studying, moving chairs and tables, making copies, talking to a friend. All of these are important in God’s eyes. Each task we do, each thought we think, each word we say is important to God. We only have a short time to impact this world we live in and we must start with ourselves, our own hearts and minds. When we can do that others will see the results and be changed as well. That is why self-leadership is so important. You cannot change someone else if you cannot change yourself, and that is only possible with the help of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

November 17, 2002:

When I am afraid I trust in You. When I am weak I trust in You. When I am stressed I trust in You. When I am hurting I trust in You. When I am down I trust in You. When I am angry I trust in You. When I am lonely I trust in You. No matter what the circumstances of life, I need to trust in God for He is my light and my refuge, my strength and my motivation, my companion and my friend, my counselor and my father. Praise be to God – Thank you Lord for saving my soul – for loving me as much as you do. I love you Lord.

December 16, 2002:

Praise be to God! You are awesome, O God, whose power and might are beyond comprehension. You are worthy of all praise and adoration. You are the King of the universe the Mighty One. You reign on high – You reign in my life. Father I am reminded again today of your power and might. I adore you and love you. I thank you for leading me and directing my path. Help me to be obedient to your will. Grant me wisdom and discernment to know Your ways and to follow You every day. Give me the strength I need this day to serve You.

I am starting a new journal today. It may only be a few sentences or some days an entire page. For me this practice of writing my thoughts and prayers helps to keep me focused and is a great way to connect with God. I know this is not for everyone, but I believe I need to start this again. Find what works for you to connect with God and start doing that today.

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7 Principles for Attracting People to Your Team

I’ve been reading about David in the Bible, the book of Chronicles. It is the story of how he rose to power as King of Israel. The part that is very interesting to me is the mighty men that joined David early on in his story. The mighty men were among the most skilled at what they did, “They were bowmen and could shoot arrows and sling stones with either the right or the left hand.” Each man brought a different kind of skill to the team. All of the skills were needed for David to accomplish the vision God had for him.

David had been anointed king for some time, but was not yet in power. David attracted people with the skills he needed in order for God’s vision to happen in His people. God chose David and then people chose David. So how does that happen? When you are walking with God and following Him, how do the right people come along to help you with that journey?

Here are 7 principles I have learned on my journey in leadership:

  1. The key to leadership is leading yourself well. Most of your leadership time should be spent on growing, learning and changing as a leader. The more you grow, the better leader you become.
  2. Allow the people around you to lead. Don’t feel like you need to make all the decisions. Trusting people and then backing them up is a great way to develop people. This takes self-confidence and courage, to allow people to make key decisions. Even when they make mistakes, you can use that as a coaching time to help them grow.
  3. Make sure you are pouring into others. You have to spend time with people in order for them to commit to helping with the vision you are following. As you grow, you can pour into others and build those relationships. Make sure you are allowing others to pour inbto you as well.
  4. Be likeable. You will get more people to join you and help you if they like you than any other reason. How likeable are you? Do people like to spend time with you? Are you approachable or do you come across as too busy or too distracted?
  5. Be real. This is a big deal, don’t try to be someone you are not. For many years I did that and found myself with few followers. People soon find out if you are what you say you are when they spend some time around you, they will either buy-in or bow out.
  6. Admit your mistakes. I learned early on that it is much better to simply admit when you made a mistake, rather than making excuses and trying to cover things up to make yourself look good. Doing this brings credibility to your leadership.
  7. Be humble, yet persistent. Humility is thinking less about yourself and more about others. It is being confident in who you are and not needed to get all the recognition and credit. When you balance that with a laser focus on the vision and how to get there, people will follow.

Leading well is not about learning a bunch of leadership techniques. It’s about loving and caring about people. If you really care about the people God brings into your life, you will focus on them as real people and not a means to an end. I believe that the way to build a fantastic team is to honor and care for the them. When you do that it builds loyalty and increases the passion of the team to accomplish the vision.

Lead Well!

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10 Ways to Build Solid Relationships

How do you lead through relationships? John Maxwell has been quoted saying “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Leadership cannot be separated from relationship. In order to accomplish anything of significance it takes people and healthy relationships in order to bring lasting results. By developing good relational skills a leader can get much more done. In Romans 12:9-21 Paul gives us ten instructions on how to build solid relationships:

  1. Avoid hypocrisy – be sincere and real, walk the talk (v. 9)
  2. Be loyal – treat others like brothers and sisters (v. 10)
  3. Give preference to others – honor the desires of others above your own (v.10)
  4. Be hospitable – look for ways you can serve and meet the needs of others (v. 13)
  5. Return good for evil – Don’t retaliate when others hurt you, hold your tongue (v.14)
  6. Identify with others – Celebrate with others, show compassion to others (v.15)
  7. Be open-minded toward others – Connect with people by being more interested in them than yourself (v. 16)
  8. Treat everyone with respect – This shows you value them as a person (v. 17)
  9. Do everything possible to make peace – do your best to resolve conflict (v.18)
  10. Remove revenge from your life – Let God judge others; you love them (v.19-21)
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Backwards

Most of the time, we see things backwards. When things go bad or hard times come we tend to have a very narrow view. It is very difficult to step back and see the bigger picture. In the book of Acts, we get to hear the story about Paul and how he spread the word about a loving, generous God to people all over the area. It is fascinating to hear about his adventures and how he faced opposition and challenges.

After he had spend many years pouring himself into key leaders, teaching them the good news about Jesus he knew he needed to go to Jerusalem. There were many people that warned him strongly not to go. They told him is was too dangerous, that he would be imprisoned, beaten and possibly killed. Any way you slice it, he would be facing extreme opposition if he went.

Agabus, a prophet, strongly warned Paul that the Jews in Jerusalem would tie him up and hand him over to non-believers. After hearing this Paul’s friends all begged him not to go. This is how he responded to the fear that gripped those around him:

“Why all this hysteria? Why do you insist on making a scene and making it even harder for me? You’re looking at this backward. The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience. Can’t you see that?” Acts 21:12-13 He also said earlier in Chapter 20:24 “What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredible extravagant generosity of God.”

Paul refused to let life’s problems derail him. He understood that what happens in you is more important than what happens to you. He also understood that when you look to Jesus as your role model and draw strength from Him each day, He’ll give you all that’s needed to overcome life. Here are some more take-aways from Paul’s example:

  1. No one enjoys pain, but a faithful disciple wants to do God’s will above all else
  2. Our desire to trust God should overshadow our desire to avoid hardship and suffering.
  3. When we really want to do God’s will, we must accept all that comes with it – even pain.
  4. What we put into life is far more important than what we get out of life.
  5. Single-mindedness is a quality needed by anyone who wishes to do God’s work. The ability to narrow the focus to what really matters.
  6. The way in which we handle adversity can bring glory to God and encouragement to others or shame to God and discouragement to others.
  7. When we face our fears head on, God does some amazing things.
  8. When we take a step in obedience, God brings strength and courage for the next step.
  9. Fear can keep those closest to you from seeing the bigger picture and understanding why you are doing what you are doing for God.
  10. God is more interested in strength and stability than in speed. Growth is gradual.

What do you need to face head on instead of running from? What perspective do you have on what is happening in your life right now? Is how you are handling life bringing glory to God? What painful experience has helped shape your character and who you are today? What situation are looking at backwards?