Effective Christian leaders make long range plans and give God room to actively direct or change those plans. Read Romans 15:22-29.

In today’s verses the Apostle Paul is in process of taking a love offering from the churches in Macedonia to the church in Jerusalem that had fallen on hard times. While on his way to Jerusalem, Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome discussing some long range plans to visit their church on his way to preach the Gospel in Spain.

The wise leader will learn from everything in their environment. Read Proverbs 6:6-8.

Every leader has the potential to learn principals of leadership by simply studying the organization and activity of an ant colony. Nature abounds with illustrations of animals and insects that store up provisions during times of abundance in preparation for times of scarcity. God gave them instincts to look ahead and prepare. In today’s verses the ants do what needs to be done when it needs to be done to make provision for the future.

Wise leaders look to God’s example to become effective long range planners. Read Isaiah 37:26.

When Isaiah wrote this verse, Hezekiah was king of Judah, and Assyria was the dominate world power. King Sennacherib of Assyria had captured all the fortified cities of Judah and Jerusalem was under siege. He sent his field commander to King Hezekiah with a message stating, “Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says ‘Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria’…Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them…” Hezekiah took Sennacherib’s letter into the temple and spread it out before the Lord and asked God to deliver Israel by defending His own name. In His answer to Hezekiah’s prayer, God indicated His long range plan for the Assyrian king and the Assyrian nation.

Day 1 – The wise leader develops both short range and long range plans. Read Genesis 3:15.

Adam and Eve had made a decision to disobey a direct command from God and eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. In their shame, they confessed their sin to God and God pronounced judgment for their act of direct defiance. Some of God’s judgments were fulfilled immediately and some would be fulfilled in the future.

Every great leader will develop the ability to embrace change. Read John 1:1-18.

Jesus understood what it takes to lead while embracing change. In the beginning He was with God and was God and was treated as the sovereign of the universe. He left heaven where He led as God and experienced the change of becoming a leader in the form of a human infant, child, adolescent, young adult, and mature man. Jesus went from all creation knowing He was the sovereign ruler where He led with absolute power at His disposal to leading others that only saw Him as an uneducated carpenter from northern Israel with no authority and no power.