One of the biggest misconceptions about leadership today is that it's all glamour and luxurious living, but truth be told, God's framework of leadership is far from that.
Anyone who thinks that leadership is all about the perks and convenience could never be more wrong. When leadership becomes God's call and purpose for your life, one must expect that challenges will become harder than staying on the sidelines.
God's idea of leadership has always been about calling even the unqualified and putting them through a series of trials that proves both our incapability and God's power. 2 Corinthians 12:10 says, "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Whether it's a call to corporate, ministry or household leadership, the mantle is not as glamorous as many think. Here are four ways that godly leadership can get tough and ugly, but why it is also completely worth it.
There will be opposition
Paul shares in 1 Timothy 4:1-2, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared."
Leaders will always encounter opposition because a godly leader will almost always go against a prevalent culture. Through God's grace, we can persevere through all the conflict and disagreements.
The fight for integrity gets harder
The books of 1 and 2 Kings line up a long list of rulers who fell because their integrity was put on the line and they failed to fight for it. By our own strength, we cannot defend our values, but through trusting in Christ's finished work as our strength, we can conquer. As we allow God to strengthen our character, we grow in the process as well.
You die to yourself more
Jesus once said to His disciples in Mark 10:44, "and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all." Jesus's framework of leadership has always been formatted using the concept of service and sacrifice. When God calls us to lead, He places us through a process of denying ourselves so that others may be served through us.
Priorities get challenged
Leaders will know how busy and hectic schedules can get when called into position. All of a sudden, eight hours a day, five days a week doesn't seem enough to get all things done. Most people respond to the busyness by carelessly rearranging priorities, but God calls us to surrender the weight and burden to Him so that He may have His way and work miraculously through your business, ministry, home or community.
