His Word Speaks

1 John 4:8 God is love

You may not have been told this in a while, but you are a leader. You have people that rely on you for a variety of needs and aspirations. As a parent, your children look to you for physical, emotional, social needs. Pretty much their existence for quite some time is dependent upon your ability to lead them, to anticipate their needs and provide satisfactory solutions for them until you can train them how to manage those needs independently. As a sibling, you are relied upon for encouragement, for validating and maintinaing a bond with a human being that has the same or similar shared life experiences as you. The list of folks that depend on you grows with every relationship you have - your partner, colleagues, neighbors, etc...

In providing leadership to these folks, we often find ourselves establishing expectations for them as a result of the investment of our time, resources, and emotions. We want our kids to go to the best colleges and excel because of the sacrifices we've made to help the succeed. We expect our spouse to remain faithful because they've made a commitment to do so before God and because you have made the same commitment. We expect our colleagues to be honest and put forth a strong effort to support work projects and goals. Setting expectations goes hand in hand with leadership.

As Christian leaders, it is imperative that we remember to perform and nurture our relationships, leading with love. As we look at what we expect from others to find out if they are doing a good job, we must look to love as our key motivator. Although a great sign of the impact of ones leadership is their ability to influence others to perform, it is not the only metric that matters to God. God desires obedience over all else, it is a form of worship. Our willingness to do and to treat others in a way that He describes in the Bible is more important than our ability to cause others to measure up to our expectations for them. This is because God is not interested in how much we can control, or force people to behave in a particular way. He is more interested in how we can love others, giving space for Him to work in the lives of our neighbors and loved ones.

When I say love others, I don't mean simply generating positive thoughts towards someone. Love is not something we can do on our own or reduce down to what makes us feel comfortable. Love is not love, it's not just a basic product for us to throw out into the world and slap a bow on it and a smile. Love is not just something that we in turn should just settle for because the geniune intention God had for it has not been presented to us.

Love is not love. God is love.  He is the only comparison we can use to understand what it is and how to do it correctly.  I encourage you to read through 1st Corinthinans 13. Even just search it on the web. It will return a Bible response. 

As you read 1 Corinthians 13, you will find how the apostle Paul very clearly provides situational example after example of what it means to love. If you are like me, you will feel challenged - because love is not as easy as a box of chocolates. Love is demonstrated in many ways, based on what the need is. Love is not sacrifice and offerings, love is obedience. It's being patient when you want to give up. It's putting others first (very different than sacrifice). It's believing for good when everything points to disaster or when folks are underserving. Those are examples of God's love. These are things that Jesus did for us.

For me to do this on my own, to love instead of coerce others, is a challenge I cannot and will never be able to do on my own. Thank God for the Holy Spirit, that enables and equips us to meet these needs. I ask God daily to help me to love others and in those times I fail, I ask God to forgive me and He is faithful to give me another opportunity to make my relationship right with the person I have wronged. 

Don't forget, you are a leader. God wants you to love. He will show you how. Trust Him and don't give up. 

How is God calling you to love others today?