Do your core truths give you hope? (122-5)

“Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him” Job 13:15a. There is no way of stopping a leader with this kind of commitment.

Job’s statement must have confounded his tormentor Satan. Though Job had no clue as to what God was doing, he still maintained his commitment and hope in Him. There is nothing that can stop this kind of leader. Not setbacks! Not pain! Not hardships! Not even death!

Job’s statement probably even confounds many Christian leaders. By definition leaders are individuals that feel there is something they can do to change circumstances and situations to bring them back to some degree of normalcy. That is not the kind of commitment being discussed in this passage. Good leaders should have the tenacity to stay with it and never give up but in this passage, Job is demonstrating a core commitment to God (Christ in our world) that cannot be shaken by circumstance even when all hope is lost.

Job was willing to give his life for God. This kind of core commitment is what has made terrorism such an international problem. Terrorists no longer hold their own lives dear; they have pre-determined that they will give up their lives for their cause. Clearly, terrorists are evil because their cause is to kill other people, but that level of commitment is necessary for a godly leader.

Only when a Christian leader’s depth of commitment becomes a core truth will they find complete liberation. We can be impervious to temptations, bribes, threats, and enticements. We could actually agree with the Apostle Paul, a follower of Jesus who God trusted to write 13 books of the Bible, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me,” Galatians 2:20. When a Christian leader reaches this point, we have reached a place where God can use us to accomplish His purposes in any situation.

Matthew 10:39 “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”