The Inspired Leader: 101 Biblical Reflections for Becoming a Person of Influence (21 page)

Christ insists on being first in our life—because He is the First and the Best.

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

1. In what ways does your life presently compare to that of Jonah?
   

2. How do you typically respond when God asks you to do something that is difficult?
   

GOD'S PRIMARY CALL on your life is not to have you affirm a particular doctrine or to embrace a set of religious activities, but to enter into and to enjoy a relationship with Him. Christianity is a personal, growing, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”
(Matthew 11:28). Spiritual restoration and strength come from abiding in Christ (John 15:1-8).

One of the greatest challenges for businesspeople is to maintain a close walk with Christ while they are immersed in the frenetic demands and schedule of the marketplace. With all the demands upon us, how can we carve out adequate time to spend with our Lord? How can we consciously abide in Christ throughout our workday when we are continually being bombarded with challenges, opportunities, and problems? And, how can we spend sufficient time communing with Christ when we are so busy serving Him?

We must not forget that our primary calling is not to serve Christ, but to abide in Him. If we neglect our relationship, our service will amount to nothing. It is out of our abiding relationship in Christ that our life will produce spiritual fruit that lasts (John 15:5).

How would you describe your current walk with God? Do you enjoy abiding in Christ? Are you seeing fruit resulting from your divine relationship? Would you rather serve Christ than fellowship with Him? Remember, regardless of how busy you are or how much responsibility you carry, apart from abiding in Christ, you can do
nothing.

IN MODERN SOCIETY, people’s religious beliefs are viewed as “private” and expected to remain separate from their career. The result: Businesspeople claim to have God in their lives but their practices are anything but godly. Henry Ford hired a minister to oversee his factory workers’ morals while Ford himself maintained a lengthy relationship with his mistress, Evangeline Cote (Steven Watts,
The Peoples’ Tycoon,
332-340). John Rockefeller was a devout Baptist. During one anxious board meeting in the 1880s, while lamenting the absence of new oil discoveries, Rockefeller stood up and pointed toward heaven, stating, “The Lord will provide” (Ron Chernow,
Titan,
284). Yet many critics lambasted him as the most unscrupulous of the robber barons. J.P. Morgan stated he believed the Bible to be literally true and fastidiously attended church Sunday mornings and sang hymns Sunday evenings. He breakfasted with his minister every Monday morning (Ron Chernow,
The House of Morgan,
52). Yet Morgan also bullied kings and presidents and was repeatedly guilty of infidelity. These powerful business leaders did not always allow their faith to affect how they lived or conducted business.

A devastating development in today’s church is the emphasis that salvation comes simply by praying the “sinner’s prayer.” Many people cling to a moment, long past, when they prayed with their parents or their minister and asked Jesus to “come into their heart.” For the rest of their lives, they assure themselves that they are going to heaven when they die because they prayed a prayer, walked an aisle during a revival service, or signed a commitment card at a conference. The Bible does not give such assurance. Scripture does not teach that you become a Christian when you ask Jesus to come into your heart. Jesus taught that you become a Christian when you are born again (John 3:3). When the apostle John wanted to assure people of their eternal life, he did not ask them to look back to a moment in their past when they prayed a sinner’s prayer or were baptized. Rather he had people examine their present condition: Were they walking in darkness? Then they did not have fellowship with Christ (1 John 1:6). Did they hate their brother? Then they were not walking in the light (1 John 2:9). Did they love the things of the world? Then God’s love was obviously not in them (1 John 2:15). Habitually sin? Evidence they did not know God (1 John 3:6). On the contrary, if they were keeping God’s commandments and practicing righteousness they were indeed His children (1 John 3-5; 10). Were they overcoming the world’s temptations? Then God resided within them (1 John 4:4). Did they love others as God does? That was clear evidence they knew God (1 John 4:7).

Those who have been genuinely born again
act
like they are a new creation. Jesus claimed that you identify a tree by the kind of fruit it produces (Matthew 7:15-20). A tree that claims to be an apple tree but which produces oranges is merely a deceived orange tree. A person who claims to be a Christian but produces the fruit of an unbeliever is likewise deceived. They have not been born again. Do not be tempted to overlook consistently carnal behavior by family and friends and be falsely assuaged by a childhood proclamation they made for Christ. That is doing them no favors. The present fruit of people’s lives clearly reveals whether or not they are children of God.
How far back would you have to look to find compelling evidence that you or your family members had truly been born again?

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

1. How do you KNOW you have been born again? Is there any uncertainty in your mind about this? What evidence is there from the last month that you are a child of God? How far back do you have to look in your life to find evidence you are a Christian?
   

2. Have you looked at your Christian faith more as a religion than as a relationship? Have you viewed your faith as consisting of belonging to a church, believing certain doctrines, and embracing moral lifestyles, or have you understood it to center upon relating to the Person of Jesus Christ?
   

3. What spiritual fruit have you experienced recently that demonstrates that Christ is actively working in your life? Have you been tempted to focus on serving Christ without abiding in Him? If so, what has been the result?
   

THE BIGGEST SHOPPING day of the year! The mere thought of it sends shivers of excitement down the spine of eager bargain hunters while causing others to break out into a cold sweat. Boisterous crowds of turkey-stuffed, deal-seeking shoppers flood the malls and department stores, frantically scouting out drastic price reductions on everything from flat screen TVs to pima cotton underwear. The day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday is traditionally the day retail businesses hope to begin moving their balance sheet from the red to the black. Retailers recognize that sales during the following weeks will determine whether their companies realize a profit for that year or not.

Here’s a question for you: how long do you have to go into a new year before there is a noticeable gain in your spiritual life? For example, Jesus is able to increase your faith (Mark 9:23-27). So, how has your faith in God grown this year? At what point in the year did you begin trusting God for more than you had before? Likewise, is your prayer life more robust now than it was last January? Scripture assures us that the Holy Spirit can help us to pray for deeper things than we would know to ask for on our own (Romans 8:26). Jesus said the Spirit can powerfully increase our capacity to receive deeper, more profound words from Him (John 16:12). What month was it when you realized that God had taken your understanding of His word to a deeper level? Jesus said if we would abide in Him, His joy would fill our lives to overflowing (John 15:11). So, at what point this year did you recognize that God had expanded your joy to a dimension you had never experienced before? Is it overflowing yet? The Bible assures us that God will grant us increased wisdom if we ask Him to (James 1:5). So the question is: are you enjoying a deeper level of wisdom now than you were a year ago?

As in a business, our spiritual life could be viewed from a profit and loss perspective. Sometimes our selfish choices or our carelessness with our spiritual life causes us to take a hit spiritually. Our spiritual fervency can wane, or we compromise how we represent Jesus to others, or our power in prayer diminishes. At other times we immerse ourselves in prayer and Bible study, resulting in dramatic spiritual advancement. Our pursuit of God’s will, and our obedience to do it, leads to results that can be measured like figures on a year-end sales report. Some people end the year in worse condition spiritually than when they began. Others plateau in their spiritual life, seeing no advancement the entire year. But there are those who take major leaps forward in their spiritual maturity that results in unprecedented victories in their walk with God.

Just as in the marketplace, many people find themselves playing spiritual catch-up as the Christmas season arrives. There is a surge in the attention they give to Christ, to the church and to spiritual matters in general. They have a heightened awareness of their spiritual condition as they confront the story of the Messiah’s birth. They also realize that the spiritual goals they set at the year’s outset have not been attained. For some, even a spiritual “Black Friday” may not be enough to recuperate the year’s backsliding. What do you need to do to regain the spiritual ground you lost during this year? How will you approach the next year so you experience significant spiritual gains from its outset?

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

1. Is your walk with God in the same place it was last year? If so, why is that? How long has your Christian maturity been in the same place? Are you content with that or do you want to take your walk with God to a higher level?
   

2. Do you tend to try and play “catch up” with your walk with God? Do you neglect your relationship for stretches of time and then try and frantically catch up on your Bible reading, prayer, and study of God’s word? If so, how has that worked for you? What might you build in to your schedule so your spiritual growth is more consistent throughout the year?
   

3. How often do you suffer from “backsliding”? Do you tend to take two steps forward in your walk with God and then take one step backward? If you do, what could you do to avoid losing ground in your spiritual life?