Life for Leaders is our free, digitally delivered devotional, sent to your inbox every morning.
The Power and Tenderness of a God-Inspired Leader
Isaiah 40 portrays both the power of God and the tenderness of God. This portrait encourages us to consider our own leadership. When we exercise our power or authority, do we do it with tenderness? With compassion? With grace?
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Leadership Wisdom – How Can We Love Our Enemies? (Part 2)
Given how difficult it is to love our enemies, what are some practical tips that help us get started?
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Leadership Wisdom – Why Should We Love Our Enemies? (Part 2)
Jesus tells us to love our neighbor/enemy because we are made in the image of God. Why else might Jesus have told us to do so?
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The Power and Tenderness of God
God is powerful beyond our comprehension. Nothing in the universe matches the might of God. Yet God’s powerful arm does not smash us down. Rather, it reaches down to gather us and to embrace us.
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The Word of God Will Stand Forever
In a culture permeated by cynicism, it’s hard to trust anyone or anything. So often that in which we put our confidence fails like withering grass. According to Isaiah 40, however, “the word of our God will stand forever.” We can put our trust in God’s truth, allowing it to guide all that we do in life.
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The Gift of Comfort
God continues to comfort us today in a variety of ways. When we take our worries to the Lord in prayer, God gives us the gift of supernatural peace. When we remember God’s faithfulness in the past, we are calmed in the present. Often God’s comfort comes through people who care for us, suffer with us, pray for us, and share God’s love with us in tangible ways.
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Mercy in Jesus’ Name
We are not in charge. We have to take things on faith. We exercise courage. We look for mercy.
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We Do Pray for Mercy
The calling of the Gentiles is a marvelous thing, but it complements the Hebrew story and does not replace it.
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Pay Attention to Your Weaknesses
We all have weaknesses, and these weaknesses can be a real problem in our lives, especially in our exercise of leadership. We see a striking example of this truth in Isaiah 39, in the life of King Hezekiah. His pride contributed, not only to his personal downfall, but also the downfall of his nation. If we pay attention to our weaknesses, if we bring them honestly before God, we can structure our lives so as to minimize their negative impact.
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The Pleasure and the Puzzle of Prayer
We will never fully understand why God answers our prayers in the way God does, this side of Heaven, at any rate. Yet we continue to pray, trusting that God knows what is best even if we can’t figure out God’s ways.
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The Power of Praise
When we face overwhelming challenges to our faith, we can certainly be honest with God, asking for divine help. But the example of Hezekiah in Isaiah 37 encourages us to do something else. When we feel dwarfed by what’s hard in life and fearful of where things seem to be going, we should pause to praise the Lord, remembering the Lord’s greatness, goodness, and grace.
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Life in the Spirit II: What Jesus Smells Like
Paul declares that Christ has his own fragrance. He goes on to say that we help spread in every place the aroma of Christ to those who are being saved and those who are perishing. The problem is that historically the church of God has stood in controversy and contradiction when our stench does not align with the aroma of Christ. Ask any Old Testament prophet. Ask Isaiah whom God used to reject their burnt offerings because their worship had the stench of injustice.
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