6Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, 7casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.
1 Peter 5:6-7
33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.
Matthew 6:33
We don’t sacrifice because we think we must exalt ourselves.
Our desires morph into cares that morph into anxieties. We go deeper because we think it is up to us to provide what we need…including the position, title, influence of Leadership. God’s provision goes deeper than financial provision. God will provide all of what we need.
But he will not provide all of what we think we need.
Humble and Throw
The first remedy is to lower yourself before God and throw your cares, worries and anxieties onto him.
These two may seem like they do not belong together. How is humility and throwing your cares onto God fit into the same thought?
Because when we carry our own cares and anxieties, we play the role of God. We take on the burdens ourself.
We are not designed to take on these burdens.
As we take on the burdens, we will pass along our anxiety to others. Our anxiety will become either 1) contagious or 2) anger.
Or both.
Seek God First Before Anything Else
Oh, this is harder in practice than in talk! We get so caught up in the everyday that we naturally carry our own cares.
The way to combat this?
Seek God, his Kingdom and his righteousness First, Before anything else.
Yes, this is found in seeking God through his Word, Prayer and Community First Before anything else. Disciplines are how we seek God First Before anything else.
We seek God in righteousness First Before anything else by being aware of when we hold tightly to what we think we need to be exalted. And when we find we hold tightly to our own exaltation, we loosen our grip. Because we want to only tighten our grip around what God thinks we need, not what we think we need.
We will feel like we lack. We will look around and think everyone else is getting what they want and we should too.
As time goes along, we will also find God knows exactly what we need and when we need it. Including our own exaltation.
Sacrifice is Leadership
As leaders our goal is to be exalted. I contend this is not a bad thing…so long as we don’t exalt ourselves.
The more we…
Humble ourselves.
Throw our cares on God.
Seek God First Before anything else.
The more we are able to Sacrifice for others.
In due time, we will see God put us in the place of Leadership that he wants us in.
The goal is to lead you to engage with God’s Word so you can Hear & Follow Jesus in the everyday…especially in your leadership. Sign up for daily emails at the button below to receive the content in your inbox. You’ll receive a 1-minute email read with a link to a 5-minute blog read each day.