After the mentoring you’ve received, is now the time for you to lead?
By Dean Collins
I’ve had this conversation a few different times over the last couple of decades. Sometimes it was prompted when the last living parent of a friend died. More often it began after someone in my friend group saw another one of our mentors die. The conversation always includes comments about how many things we have learned from the recently departed.
My friends and I have discussed the importance and influence of godly men and women in our lives. We often share particular stories of times when we received strength and encouragement from our mentor’s words and through the various ways we watched them navigate their challenges and opportunities. After a few minutes of sharing stories about the ones we have admired and even leaned upon, someone in the group says this:
“When we look around, there are fewer and fewer of our older and wiser friends. Maybe it’s our turn to lead. We are now the older men and women those younger will turn to for help.”
My friends and I usually laugh at our age and about needing to step up our game if others will be depending on us!
You’re the leader now!
As the book of Joshua opens we learn that Moses has died. I wonder if Caleb and Joshua had their own conversation about others depending on them. In this case, God was very direct with Joshua. God basically told him that Moses was dead, and it was now Joshua’s responsibility to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. The words God spoke to Joshua suggest that Joshua was likely a bit nervous about having this bigger role. It is one thing to support the leader and his or her decisions. It is a completely different thing when you are the one leading.
I remember a conversation I had a few weeks after I transitioned from being a consultant at a company to becoming an executive in that same company. I was in a meeting with the CEO, and he had given me a pretty big problem to solve. We discussed the topic for several minutes as I collected all of the pertinent information. As I stood to leave his office, he grinned and said, “It is a lot harder to be the one calling the shots and leading than being the consultant who doesn’t have to live with the outcomes.” He was right.
You can count on God!
But God gave Joshua a promise. It is a promise similar to the ones he has given all of us. Several times God would reinforce and repeat these words in the coming years of Joshua’s leadership. God’s promise was that he would be with Joshua and would never leave or forsake him. He then told Joshua to be strong and courageous because he would fulfill all of his promises.
Just as God made specific promises to the Israelites, there are specific promises God has made for us.
Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28)
My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9)
If any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you (James 1:5)
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19)
I am with you always even until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20)
Joshua was given a specific task to lead and finish the work that God had begun in Moses. The task you have been given might not seem quite as big as Joshua’s, yet we know God wants all people to receive his good news that brings forgiveness, transformation, and life. It just might be that your work with others will be the very interaction that leads to someone discovering freedom, forgiveness, and eternal life.
Joshua accepted his call to leadership, and God completed his good work of leading Israel to the promised land. Centuries later Paul wrote this as a reminder of what God will do as we follow Jesus:
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6 ).
Lord , today we acknowledge our faith in you to complete the good work in us that you started when we chose to follow you as Lord. Because of your Holy Spirit working in us, we will be strong and courageous, trusting you to accomplish your perfect will in us today. Amen.
Your time with God’s Word
Joshua 1:1-9 ESV
Photos by Rhodi Lopez and T R A V E L E R G E E K on Unsplash
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