The Lord grants favor and honor to leaders who seek Him. Read 1 Samuel 2:26 and 3:15–4:1.

John Maxwell states in his book The 360 Degree Leader that “The true measure of leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.” Samuel had influence. “And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men.” When Samuel spoke people listened “…and He (the Lord) let none of his (Samuel’s) words fall to the ground. All Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.” What did Samuel have that other leaders did not have to garner this kind of favor from God?

Through a set of very unfortunate circumstances Naomi became the leader of her family. She had a choice to become bitter or trust God. She made the right choice and drew others to God. Re-read the book of Ruth.

Naomi, her husband and two sons left Jerusalem in Judah and went to Moab to avoid the results of a famine. Her husband died shortly after the move and Naomi is left to live with her two sons and their Moabite wives for the next ten years. After the untimely death of her two sons, Naomi was left very vulnerable as a widow with two daughters-in-law in a foreign land and no male in the extended family.

In the last few weeks we have looked at two Judges who started strong and failed at the finish. Read Judges 6:11-8:32 & 14:1-16:27.

Two of the most famous judges were Gideon and Samson. Both men had a good start but finished poorly. It is not just these two leaders; two thirds of the biblical leaders finished poorly. My personal experience is this two thirds rate of leaders finishing poorly is still true today. Why do so few Christian leaders finish well:

One of my personal heroes of the Bible has very little written about him but a lot said about him because of his actions. Read Numbers 13:26-33 and Joshua 14:6-14.

Caleb was one of the spies sent into the land of Canaan before Israel’s planned invasion. When the spies returned, they told Moses that “the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendents of Anak there” (Numbers 13:28). “Then Caleb … said ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it’” (Numbers 13:30). I love that Caleb did not disagree with the facts given by the other spies, there were cities and giants in the land. Caleb didn’t minimize the obstacles, but neither did he minimize the resources available to overcome the obstacles.

Becoming a leader is not a quick, simple process. It may be possible to become a self-made leader but that would be rare by any standard and impossible for a Christian. If the Spirit of God is not in control of leading and directing a Christian leader, they may develop skills but those skills bring glory to themselves not to God. Most highly successful, effective Christian leaders receive input not only from the Spirit of God but also from another leader that invests in them. Joshua is a tremendous example of such a leader. Read Numbers 27:15-23.

This portion of scripture is right at the end of Moses life when he was publicly passing the mantle of leadership to Joshua. There are excellent leadership lessons for both the mentor and the person receiving the mentoring in these few verses: