PSALM 78:72 "So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands."
The leader that Psalm 78:72 speaks of is King David, Gods' chosen servant. If you start reading at v68 and read through v72 you find that God chose a people, a place, and a person. The person was David and God chose him to lead His people. When you examine the life of David you find many good attributes and occasionally you find some deficiencies. On the good side of the ledger you find his leadership of Gods' people was pretty good. He led others well. David led others well because he himself had been led by the Lord.
Mark it down....if a person is going to lead others well, he/she must allow the Lord to lead them first. A good follower of the Lord can become a good leader of others. However, a poor follower of the Lord, most often leads others into the ditch. Lets take a look at this subject of leadership and leading others well.
1. Leading Others Well Blesses Everyone Involved.
When a person leads with integrity and guides others with skillful hands, the followers not only receive direction they see a great example. God had raised David up and trained him to be a leader of people, David learned from the Lord and God used him mightily. The people that followed Davids' lead were blessed.
To lead others well, a leader must be willing to follow Gods' lead and then allow God to use them to bless others. If a godly leader passes on what the Lord has taught him, which is part of the great commission, then biblical principles are passed along and discipleship occurs. The result is people are shepherded, guided and blessed.
2. Leading Others Poorly Hinders Everyone Involved.
I drop Hannah off at school every morning. We go the back way into the school and miss most of the traffic. The city has a few police officers that direct traffic in and out of the schools. The first officer we come to is a small woman that directs traffic with rhythm. She kind of dances and motions for us to come through. She is absolutely on top of what she does...she is my buddy even though she don't know me. About 1/8 of a mile further we come to a second police officer that I call "the big fella". Big fella doesn't dance but he guides hundreds of vehicles with an amazing skill. He is my hero. He just knows what to do and does it well. When we catch these two officers working at the school we are blessed by their leadership, their skill and their understanding of what has to happen in order for literally thousands of people to get where they are going on time.
Sadly, about one or two days a week my hero is not at his post and we have a substitute police officer. Instead of my hero being at his post we have an unfamiliar face that is not familiar with the middle school's proper flow of traffic. The result? Most often, thousands of people are not guided properly and chaos and constipation occurs in the school drop off line. Instead of being helped, many are hindered.
What we have here is a teachable moment. I shared with Hannah the importance of being trained up, equipped and having the skills needed in life in order to bless others. I shared, "the more familiar we are by practicing a particular skill we will become more efficient as we learn, and again, bless others." Hannah also shared with me that this too is a teachable moment for me in the area of "patience". LOL. Hannah usually has a word for me that stings!
Away with my conviction and back to my blog! Leadership does matter. When we lead others well, they are blessed..... when we lead others poorly, they are hindered.
As a follower of Jesus Christ we need to have a heart full of integrity and we need to allow God to train us up so that our hands are skillful. Let us ask God to help us lead others well and make sure that we are not a hindrance instead of a blessing.