that how you lead yourself is critical. It’s also a clear reminder that personal leadership isn’t easy. It’s our toughest leadership assignment. It’s difficult for a number of reasons. The first is our likeness to sheep. God’s people are often labeled as sheep in Scripture. As a shepherd David knew about sheep. He knew that sheep are far from the smartest creatures. They have a pack mentality, and they are creatures of habit who follow the same trail and routine with no desire for change. Left to their own devices, sheep would consume all the food in a pasture and then starve within sight of another pasture. They are easily frightened. They are fairly helpless and can’t even right themselves if they fall over.
Despite all our education and advances over time, we are a lot like sheep. We often struggle to make wise choices, we are easily consumed by fear, we get stuck in ruts and routines that are unhealthy, and we have difficulty seeing beyond our immediate circumstances. Just like sheep need a shepherd, our desperate need is for the shepherd of Psalm 23. The shepherd who serves, leads, guides, restores, provides, protects and blesses.
A second reason why we are our toughest leadership assignment is the battle within. The apostle Paul was an unparalleled pioneer and bold missionary leader who saw God bring great growth through his service. In the process Paul faced extreme opposition and overwhelming obstacles as a leader. But Paul’s greatest leadership challenge wasn’t his team, who had nearly all deserted him by the end of his life. Paul’s greatest leadership challenge was himself. In Romans 7:21–24 he writes,
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
Can you relate to Paul’s struggle? I sure can. I can relate to a war in my mind and feeling like a prisoner to the law of sin at work within. I’ve felt stuck and have struggled to overcome personal battles. I’ve been puzzled, trying to figure out how I can routinely lead others with a reasonable level of skill and solve fairly complex organizational problems, yet I can’t seem to break free from or solve personal issues. Paul goes on in Romans 8 to share God’s solution to his and our problem, but the battle and challenge within is clear.
Added to this war within is another battle. A battled waged externally. As Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” This verse and Paul’s direction to “Therefore put on the full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:13) is a reminder that leading ourselves well isn’t hard simply because of the battle within but also because we are targets of a battle from the outside.
Thankfully, we don’t need to face these battles on our own. For Christ-followers and Christian leaders, personal leadership is a partnership. It’s a partnership that involves God—the Good Shepherd—the individual and the community. Each has a key, unique and indispensable role. In this chapter, we will look at God’s role and our role in this special partnership. We will look at the role of community later on in chapter 5, “Keeping Connected.”
God’s Role
God has the central role in transforming and leading you.
It starts with God’s investment. God has more invested in us than we can imagine. Scripture says that we were part of his plan before creation (Ephesians 1:4). Psalm 139 reminds us that God was intimately involved in our creation. Verse 13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
But God continues to be intimately involved in our lives beyond our creation. Psalm 139 also tells us that God knows “when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down…Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely” (Psalm 139:2–4). David continues and writes, “Where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7) and concludes that wherever he goes, God is there.
God’s initiative is also plainly evident throughout Scripture. God not only initiated through creation, but he continued to initiate through his plan of redemption. John 3:16–17 is the best known summary of God’s initiative: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” His love led to his initiative.
Through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, God’s work has accomplished what we could not and cannot. The first chapter of Ephesians provides a great list of what God has already done for Christ-followers. He has blessed us in the heavenly realms; in love he predestined us for adoption, redeemed us, forgave us, lavished us with the riches of his grace, made known to us the mystery of his will, included us in Christ, and marked us with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. All this is God’s initiative, work and accomplishment.
At this point, we can conclude that God is for us. As Paul argues in Romans 8:31–32, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” God is on our side. His desire is for our good, and he is still actively engaged in that goal. The grace given through salvation is immediately met by grace for sanctification. We know that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
God’s grace, his provision and his sanctifying work through the ongoing activity of the Holy Spirit seeks to transform us “into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). As God seeks to form Christ in us (Galatians 4:19), we see more and more of his life expressed through us. The products of God’s transforming work include the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23) as well as spiritual intimacy, godly character, vibrant relationships and contribution through service.
As Cloud and Townsend write in How People Grow, “To grow, we need things that we do not have and cannot provide, and we need to have a source of those things who looks favorably upon us and who does things for us for our own good.”1 God is that source, and he is at work for our own good. While individuals and community do have a key role to play, Cloud and Townsend note that “We do not grow because of ‘will power’ or ‘self-effort’ but because of God’s provision. God offers the help we need (that’s grace) and then we have to respond to that provision.”2
Our Role
While God initiates and provides the core ingredients for change, you and I can’t be passive. We are called to take responsibility to join in partnership with what God is doing and desiring to do in our lives. In God In My Everything, Ken Shigematsu helps to describe and differentiate between God’s role and our role. Ken writes,
The growth of our spiritual lives is primarily God’s work. On our own, we can no more produce the fruit of Christ’s character in our lives than we can squeeze pebbles into diamonds (John 15:5). Yet despite our foibles and failures, God calls us to play a role in our transformation. He invites us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling,” precisely because “it is God who works in [us] to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13–14). Grace, as Dallas Willard observes, is not opposed to effort but to earning. We cannot earn our life with God—it’s a gift. But we are to “make every effort to add to [our] faith goodness...knowledge…and love (2 Peter 15–7).”3
Our contribution to this partnership is highlighted
