Are You Convinced?
Finding Refreshment in Certainty.
We can learn a great deal from the valleys and deserts in our pasts. Think back to a time when God seemed far away, when your spiritual vitality was waning and you felt like you were going it alone. Is this in the distant past? Nearer? Yesterday?
The feeling of discouragement over disappointments or stress over uncertainties saps us of our strength. As a leader I know how easy it is to become immobilized when everyone looks to you for confident leadership while internally you feel completely undone. It’s tempting to seek refuge in our offices where behind closed doors we try to rekindle the energy, vision and passion to keep going.
Several years ago I was struggling through just such a difficult time in my life. God seemed far away and I was tired, overwhelmed by life and stressed. I was thirsty for refreshment but I couldn’t find it in church or work or vacations. I was nearly despondent when one day I came across this all too common verse from Romans 8,
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38)
It was a verse I had read so many times that I nearly had it memorized. But it had not made its way from my head to my heart. Suddenly, as clearly as if He were standing beside me, I heard God say to me, “Scott, you are not convinced.” He was right. I realized that I had allowed the pressures of the job and life to rob me of the refreshing truth that God really loved me with an undying, unequivocal and totally undeserved love.
It is one thing to know this in your head, it is quite another to let it overwhelm your spirit. God taught me that if I were to be the leader He called me to be I would need to know the certainty of His love for me in any and every situation. I learned that when that truth washes over us it refreshes our spirit like nothing else in all creation.
For the steward leader, refreshment begins with certainty.
Do not be deceived, uncertainty and doubt breed stagnation, fear and anxiety. The enemy so desperately wants us to live in bondage. That’s why he works so hard to distract us, to get us to focus on the problems facing our leadership team, to become overwhelmed by the fears and uncertainties of our people, to be weighed down by the financial shortfalls, legal uncertainties and strategic threats to our success.
Yet all the time the transforming, unimaginable, awesome love of God is there for us, ready to fill us to overflowing with His presence, power and peace. We only need to let it flow through us through the power of the Holy Spirit, that we can say with Paul, “I am convinced.”
Is it time for you to regain strength and energy for your work?
Do you need to find again that solid rock on which you can stand?
Do you long for the courage again to lead with passion and conviction?
As a steward leader I encourage you to claim this one promise for yourself today – God’s gift to you is the real certainty of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. It produces in us a spirit that is enlivened, freed and refreshed.
Are you convinced?
