Are you living with the guilt of a major failure? (127-3)

Every leader will make mistakes but they don’t have to prove fatal to your leadership career. Read Psalm 51.

The Bible’s record of King David, Israel’s second king, indicates that he made some major moral and ethical mistakes but God allowed him to stay on the throne until his death. One of David’s mistakes was so heinous that it violated many Jewish laws, several of the Ten Commandments, and could have been punished by death. David’s sin was done in secret from people in his own court but God knew all about it. God sent His prophet Nathan to confront David concerning his adultery and resultant pregnancy with a woman named Bathsheba and to also confront him for arranging to have her husband murdered to cover up his sin. Psalm 51 is David’s response to that confrontation.

As king, David could have stonewalled any accountability for his behavior but when David was confronted by Nathan he fell on the floor and wept in bitter repentance. David sought restoration as a king and spiritual man. Because of his repentant heart, God allowed him to remain in office until he died. Some sins no doubt disqualify a leader from continuing in leadership but more leaders fall from leadership from their deception to cover up a failure than fall from the actual mistake. History teaches that both God and the public forgive a leader who owns up to a mistake. History also shows that both God and the public refuse to forgive leaders who remain unrepentant. When a leader deceives the people and loses their trust, they will no longer follow that leader.

Are you able to admit a mistake to God and your team or do you feel it necessary to cover up every failure? Are you currently living with the guilt of a major failure but covering it up to protect your image or ego? Will you take the first step to confess your moral or ethical failure to God? He already knows all the details just like He knew all the details of David’s failure. Pray about how to take the first step by discussing your desire with God in your prayers.