Thought for the day

LEADERSHIP

UNITY

These words conjure up a variety of pictures in our minds. We think we know how they should look in our lives (at work, at church, in our government, marriages and families, etc...). All too often our expectations are not met. I wonder if it has anything to do with our perspective on these words.


I wonder if we were to filter leadership and unity through the following passages, if our expectations would change.

Ephesians 3:16-19

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 4:11-13

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

What if we began to pray...

...that God would strengthen us with power through his Spirit

...that He would help us grasp His love, His enormous love

...that we would acknowledge and accept the roles He has given us and the roles He has given others

...that we would be brought together with others in unity that ONLY comes from our relationship with Jesus

...that we would become mature in our relationship with God?

I think that we would begin to see that leadership is God ordained. I also think we would begin to see true unity. I firmly believe that when people are seeking God and listening to His Spirit there will be unity. God and the Holy Spirit are One, they will never speak one thing to one person and another thing to another person. He is not divisive or confusing, He is Light.

I love that both of the passages above end with a promise-this kind of life equals a life filled to the fullness of God. Jesus came to give life, and not a bland-doormat-discontent life, but life to the FULL. That fullness of life comes from God and God alone. I know this is what I want. And so I will begin to pray for the things I listed above. Do you want to join me?