Proverbs Relationship Pointers

•November 22, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Hey Guys…I was doing my devotions earlier this morning and thought that I would pass along some of the things that I was working on.  These are things that we need to continue to rehearse and practice as God continues to develop us as good leaders.  Blessings

 

Relationships

Proverbs 27:1-21

-          When people are Esteemed, Relationships are Redeemed.

o       Leaders understand that people represent to us our most appreciable assets.

o       No resource is more valuable than PEOPLE.  Therefore, people skills represent a leader’s most important attribute.

 

-          This text presents some fundamentals on relationships.

o       It teaches that if people are esteemed, relationships are redeemed.

o       Notice these key principles from this chapter.

 

  1. Don’t brag (v.1-2) Leaders know and understand how little they get from self-promotion.
  2. Don’t envy (v.4) Leaders sabotage themselves if their motive is to keep up with others.
  3. Be forthright (v.5-6) Leaders don’t fear confrontation, but speak the truth in love.
  4. Don’t forsake your roots (v.8) Leaders understand the power of relational heritage.
  5. Stay focus (v.9-10) Leaders work at maintaining relationships and meeting needs.
  6. Add value (v.17) Leaders sharpen those with whom they come in conflict.
  7. Don’t be moved by flattery (v.21) Leaders stay humble or you will stumble.

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Tough Questions Pt.2

•November 17, 2011 • Leave a Comment

The following is a list of questions that we must all be asking ourselves.

  1. Have you ever broken a bad habit?  To lead others, you must master your appetites.
  2. Do you keep self-control when things go wrong?  The leader who loses control under adversity forfeits respect and influence.  A leader must be calm in crisis and resilient in disappointment.
  3. Do you think and act independently?  A leader must use the best ideas of others to make decisions.  Then make up his or her mind and not be indecisive.
  4. Can you handle criticism?  Can you profit from it?  The humble person can learn from petty criticism, even malicious criticism.
  5. Can you turn disappointment into creative new opportunity?
  6. Do you readily gain the cooperation of others and win their respect and confidence?
  7. Can you exert discipline without making a power play?  True leadership is an internal quality of the spirit and needs no show of external force.
  8. Are you a peacemaker?  A leader must be able to reconcile with opponents and make peace where arguments have created hostility.
  9. Do people trust you with difficult and delicate situations?
  10. Can you induce people to do happily some legitimate thing that they would not normally wish to do?
  11. Can you accept opposition to your viewpoint or decision without taking offense?  Leaders always face opposition.
  12. Can you make and keep friends?  Your circle of loyal friends is an index of your leadership potential.
  13. Do you depend on the praise of others to keep you going?  Can you hold steady in the face of disapproval and even temporary loss of confidence?
  14. Are you at ease in the presence of strangers?  Do you get nervous in the presence of your superior?
  15. Are the people who repost to you generally at ease?  A leader should be sympathetic and friendly.
  16. Are you interested in people?  All types?  All races? No prejudice?
  17. Are you tactful?  Can you anticipate how your words will affect a person?
  18. Is your will strong and steady?  Leaders cannot vacillate or cannot drift with the wind.
  19. Can you forgive?  Or do you nurse resentments and harbor ill-feelings toward those who have injured you?
  20. Are you reasonably optimistic?  Pessimism and leadership do not mix.
  21. Do you feel the master passion like Paul, who said, “This one thing I do!”  This kind of singleness of motive will focus your energies and powers on the desired objective.  Leaders need a strong focus.
  22. Do you welcome responsibility?

 

-          How we handle relationships tells a lot about our potential for leadership.

o   Do other people’s failures annoy or challenge you?

o   Do you use people, or cultivate people?

o   Do you direct people, or develop people?

o   Do you criticize or champion (encourage) people?

o   Do you shun or seek out others with a special need or problem?

 

These tests mean little unless we act to correct our deficits and fill in the gaps with training and discipline.  Perhaps the final test of Leadership Potential is whether you “sit” on the results of such an analysis or do something about it.  I want to encourage you to look at the points of weakness and failure you are aware of and, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of discipline, concentrate on strengthening those areas of weakness and correcting faults.  Become the LEADER that you are!!

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Tough Questions

•November 14, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Hey Guys…as I was doing my devotions this morning…I thought I would share with you some of my thoughts from it.  In Galatians 6  Paul is talking about bearing and sharing burdens and taking responsibility.  Responsibility always begins at the top…therefore leaders must lead the way.  We must be ready to help restore others who’ve failed, guard against our own sin, help bear the burdens of others and at the end of the day stay humble.  This should always be our approach and attitude.  If not then we will always live in struggle because you can’t export what’s not been imported.  In other words it’s hard to live and demonstrate a life that we’re not living.  Here are a few questions that we need to be asking ourselves as leaders…

 

As leaders we need to be held accountable.  Therefore we need to invite others in our life to ask us tough questions.  Let the questions be an “alarm” to us to keep us on track.

 

  1. Is my personal walk with God up to date?
  2. Am I keeping my priorities straight?
  3. Am I asking myself the hard questions?
  4. Am I accountable to someone in authority?
  5. Am I sensitive to what God is saying to the whole body of Christ?
  6. Am I over-concerned with building my image?
  7. Do I put more stock in “events” rather than “process”?
  8. Am I a loner in my leadership and personal life?
  9. Am I aware and honest about my weaknesses?
  10. Is my calling constantly before me?

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Leadership Matters: Navigating through Conflict Pt. 2

•November 12, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Hey Guys…just wanted to pass along some thoughts to you from my devotions this morning.  Concerning communication and conflict…these things are great to keep in practice with your daily lives.

If you can Master Communication…you Manage Conflict.  When we take the initiative with communication by creating healthy environments and keeping things right in the eyes of God then we’re able to manage conflict in such a way that it becomes a win for others as well as for the kingdom.  Notice these powerful versus shared in Proverbs 15: 1-7 and its counsel concerning managing conflict:

1.      Remain calm and gentle when confronting conflict and your example will become contagious. (v.1)

2.      Speak wisely; making sure your information is truthful and accurate.  (v.2)

3.      Remember, God is the ultimate Judge and will execute justice.  (v.3)

4.      Use your words to foster healing, fix the problem, not the blame.  (v.4)

5.      Stay teachable; be open to correction and quick to apologize when wrong.  (v.5)

6.      Add value to everyone who contacts you, even when you disagree.  (v.6)

7.      Speak words that spread knowledge and understanding.  (v.7)

Here are some practical tips for you to work with…

1.       Don’t brag (v.1-2) Leaders know and understand how little they get from self-promotion.

2.       Don’t envy (v.4) Leaders sabotage themselves if their motive is to keep up with others.

3.       Be forthright (v.5-6) Leaders don’t fear confrontation, but speak the truth in love.

4.       Don’t forsake your roots (v.8) Leaders understand the power of relational heritage.

5.       Stay focus (v.9-10) Leaders work at maintaining relationships and meeting needs.

6.       Add value (v.17) Leaders sharpen those with whom they come in conflict.

7.       Don’t be moved by flattery (v.21) Leaders stay humble or you will stumble.


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Leadership Matters: Navigating through Confrontation

•November 8, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Hey Guys…earlier this morning I was working on my devotions and was meditating on a few scriptures and wanted to pass along to you a thought about working with others and handling others in tough situations. I think sometimes if we’re not careful in handling tough situations we can press our agenda’s for the sake of getting a win under our belt but along the way leave a blood trail of hurting people who need to see the love and compassion of Jesus in their sin, pain, or even rebellion. Here are some thoughts to consider…about spiritual discipline.

- The true leader is concerned primarily with the welfare of others, not with their own comfort or prestige. They show sympathy for the problems of others, but their sympathy fortifies and stimulates; it does not soften and make weak.

- A spiritual leader will always direct the confidence of others to the Lord. They see in each emergency a new opportunity for helpfulness.

- Spiritual discipline is a responsibility of the leader, a duty often unwelcome. But every Christian society requires godly and loving discipline to maintain divine standards in doctrine, morals, and conduct.

- The spirit of meekness will achieve far more than the spirit of criticism. When approaching a disciplinary situation, work on remembering these 5 guidelines that may help keep motives pure and God’s presence tangible.
1. Conduct a thorough and impartial inquiry.
2. Consider the overall benefit to the work and to the individual.
3. Do it all in the spirit of love and in the most considerate manner.
4. Always keep the spiritual restoration of the offender in view.
5. And by all means and always…PRAY IT THROUGH!!

- Reference: Galatians 6:1, 2 Thessalonians 3:15, 2 Corinthians 2:8

Have a good and Godly day!!!

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Don’t Retreat. Stay Focused!

•November 4, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Hey Guys…I was doing my devotions this morning and thought I would share with you a few things I felt in my heart. The bible says, “But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.” (Luke 12:39)

What are the times when you and I are most vulnerable to being caught off guard by the enemy of our souls?

One of those times is just after you’ve had a great victory. Consider Jesus when He was baptized and was about to begin His public ministry. He was taken away into the desert to be tempted by satan.

Leisure time is another place in which satan seeks to take us off our normal routine of personal quiet times. In the normal routine of life, our senses are tuned to the need to draw upon God’s Spirit to see us through the activities of each day. However, when we get away from our routine and go on vacation, we can often drop these routines. We wrongfully think that we do not need to spend time with the Lord during leisure times. This is a terrible mistake. The vacation becomes a test of character. During vacations we turn freely to what we love most. It reveals to us what is at the core of our existence.

It’s like what our school teachers face every year…here’s what a teacher shared, “The greatest difficulty we encounter is the summer vacation. Just when we have brought a student to a certain discipline and place in their study habits, we lose him. When he comes back we have to begin all over again.” I thought how true that is in our spiritual lives. It only takes a small crack in the door of our heart to lose our spiritual focus.

Be on guard when times of retreat are made available to you. Use these times for spiritual refreshment, not just physical refreshment, and you will keep the thief from entering your house.

Blessings…have a great day.

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Leading through Relationship

•November 1, 2011 • Leave a Comment

I was praying earlier this morning and doing my devotions and was reading from several passages of scripture.  I would encourage you to read them…Prov.25:19-28, Matt.5:44, Romans 12:9-21.

My thoughts, meditations, and prayers were toward these verses and so I wanted to share them with you as well.  As believers these scriptures provide for us a powerful insight on not only leadership but personal development in our journey with the Lord.  Many leaders commit the error of separating leadership from relationships.  This happens when a person steps into a position of leadership and assumes that everyone will follow his or her ideas because of their position.  Some leaders wrongly believe that their knowledge alone qualifies them to lead others.  People really don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.  We cannot separate leadership from relationships.  Leaders help themselves by developing good relational skills.

One of the reasons why a church can be so POWERFUL is because there is nothing more powerful than an army of volunteers.  People commit to giving their life to something (CAUSE) without being made or paid to be there.  When leaders can lead volunteers watch out because something is about to be invaded and territories are about to be conquered!

 

Paul instructs us how to lead through relationships in Romans 12:9-21:

 

  1. Avoid hypocrisy…always be sincere and genuine (v.9)
  2. Stay loyal to those around you…treat others like family (v.10)
  3. Give preference to others…honor the desires of others above your own (v.10)
  4. Be hospitable…look for ways to meet the needs of others (v.13)
  5. Return evil for good…respond (act) don’t react, when others hurt you (v.14)
  6. Identify with others…treat others needs or victories as your own (v.15)
  7. Keep an open mind toward others…work and seek to connect with those you speak with (v.16)
  8. Treat everyone with respect…even those who may work against you (v.17)
  9. Do everything possible to keep peace…choose wisely which hills to die on (v.18)
  10. Remove revenge from your life…let God be the one to judge others; you love them (v.19-21)

 

Practice these 10 things in your everyday walk…and it becomes contagious for others as well!!  Have a great day.

 

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