Thank you Miles Welch for giving us permission to repost his blog article which he originally posted on Sept. 26, 2016. Check out his blog called Developing Next Generation Leaders to read his insightful articles: mileswelch.com. Miles has served the local church as a pastor and leader for 20 years, and has been at 12Stone Church (Lawrenceville, GA) https://12stone.com/ since 2001.
Leadership inevitably involves wrestling with insecurity. Lack of clarity, team conflict, uncertainty, past failures and many other factors can undermine leadership confidence. Here is the problem: insecurity erodes our ability to be strong Kingdom leaders. Insecure leaders use people instead of serve them, obsess over the wrong things and allow fear to undermine progress.
In 1 Timothy 1:12, Paul writes, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he has considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service.” During moments or seasons of insecurity, these three phrases of scripture can instill fresh leadership confidence.
1. God is the one who appointed you to leadership.
Paul had been handpicked for the special assignment of sharing the Gospel with the Gentiles. Not all of us get so specific an assignment, but God has called each of us to lead in a special way. This means you have been picked, you have been chosen, you have been called and you have been appointed to lead. When you remember that God is the one who has chosen you to lead, it does something for you – it gives you confidence to step into leadership knowing that you are not alone.
2. God considers you trustworthy to lead.
When Paul wrote, “He entrusted me,” he is saying something monumental: God trusted Paul to reach the Gentiles with the Gospel. Whatever God has called you to lead, He believes in you to lead. God thinks you can do it and feels like He can count on you. Insecurity might make you wonder if you have what it takes to lead, but God is not wondering. He believes you have what it takes.
3. God has given you strength to lead.
God appoints us and entrusts us and then fills us with His strength. God believes we have what it takes because He gives us the strength to do the task He’s given us. We can have unfailing confidence because God gives us His unfailing strength.
It is worth noting that Paul begins the verse, “I thank Christ Jesus my Lord.” I believe as Paul wrote about these three sources of leadership confidence, he was overcome by gratitude. As our confidence swells with the belief and strength of God, we will be overcome with gratitude as well.