One lesson that Christian leaders seem to learn and forget, learn and forget is that God’s rewards are based on faithfulness to Him rather than abilities or achievements. Read 2 Chronicles 7:11-22.

The Bible indicates God established and endorses the principle of giving rewards for good work unless it replaces God as our passion for life. In today’s Scripture God promises rewards to the nation for obedience but punishment for disobedience. The Lord stresses that His commitment is not to the newly-built temple, but to His people and their relationship to Him. Read more »

From time to time we see leaders gain recognition and acclaim but public recognition of a leader’s exploits may not equal the legacy history records. Read 1 Kings 16-22 focusing on 16:29-34 and 21:17-22.

The northern kingdom, Israel, endured an unbroken succession of wicked kings. Their idolatry became increasingly degraded, and they refused to learn from their predecessors’ mistakes. Ahab, son of Omri, was one of those kings. Read more »

All of us have met or served with leaders who read one too many of their own press clippings and started to believe what they were reading. They forgot that they did not achieve any victory alone. Effective leaders understand the value of their team and are fiercely loyal to them. Read 2 Samuel 23:8-35.

David led one of the most famous teams written about in the Bible. Some of the battle feats are so phenomenal that if we saw them reenacted in a movie we would immediately assume the story was fictional. Josheb-Basshebeth “raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed in one encounter” (v. 8). Another one of David’s Mighty Men was Eleazar who, when all the rest of the army retreated “…stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword….The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead” (v. 10). Eleazar single-handedly defeated the troops that put the rest of the army to flight. This team was so important to David that he named them individually in chapter 23. Read more »

The Bible is very clear that no leader should be involved in leadership for the honor or recognition. My own personal experience has been that many of us took responsibility to lead the first few times seeking recognition but found that very shallow and unfulfilling. The price of leadership is so high that recognition alone doesn’t sustain the motivation needed to lead. Yet, God created the feeling we get from recognition. Read Judges 4.

Israel had been under the iron rule of King Jabin of Canaan who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army had a powerful force including 900 iron chariots manned by expert, experienced, proven horsemen and soldiers. From all known military understanding, with Israel’s lack of central leadership and the divisions between tribes, and the lack of a standing army, Israel did not have a chance to defeat them. Read more »