October 1, 2008

*** Please open in a word of prayer.

Today’s Scripture: Joshua 1:1-9

I love looking for mentors.  In fact, mentorship is something that I value very much.  Now, we can get into a theological debate about mentorship.  We can challenge its definition.  We can debate about discipleship and person development and so on.  But the bottom line is that it is good to have examples to look at and to follow.  Being a Bible College student, I am sure that we are almost all on the same page and being called to leadership; and if not that, at least some form of ministry.

One person that I think it would be cool to look at is Joshua.  The funny part about this devotion is that if you have taken the Interpretation and Application of the Biblical Text class, you will find that this devotion might seem familiar…

What we have in our passage here is God raising/appointing a leader – Joshua.  God is clear about it and what He wants Josh to do.

Like Joshua, we too are leaders of a group, or groups of people, or at least find ourselves put in leadership roles.  Mind you we are not founding a nation.  Nor are we the “official ruler” of a nation, and we don’t live under the old covenant like Joshua… BUT….

There are three key principles we can draw from this text:

1.    To be effective leaders, we need to rely on God’s strength.
2.    We need to trust that God will help us to do our tasks.  Some of those tasks are scary, hard, or difficult.  Some may seem impossible, but be strong and courageous the Word says; and to trust in Him.
3.    We need to be obedient to God’s word

All this is fine and dandy.  But how do we do this?  How do we become better leaders?  It’s simple really.

•    Practise
•    prayer/meditation
•    obedience
•    Take intentional time for growth

Take some time and process all of that…  It is important to realize that God believes (to a point) in you.  That’s why he has placed you in leadership.  He believes that you can do the job (clearly by His strength).  The question is, do you believe Him?  Do you believe that you can do it?  Do you really believe that God will make it work?

Jason Edgar