God-fearing Leadership

Proverbs 1:7 (NASB) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

There was a time in our culture when the term “God-fearing man or woman” was used to describe a Christian; however the literature of the last century painted an image of this person as hard, cranky, without compassion, stoic, even brutal – not a pretty picture.

Notwithstanding, the “fear” written of here is not the trembling Lion quaking before the Wizard of Oz; rather, this fear includes the attitude of honoring God as having authority over all things rejecting the attitude of “I don’t need God: I can do just as well on my own.”

This faith is not mere facile declaration. This faith is vigorous, attentive, and “alive.” God-fearers are called to be magnets - attractive people - because they don’t worship self, they value others, and they lead with a moral compass firmly established.

Are you an attractive God-fearer in the workplace?

For Further Study

Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Character: the Key to Leadership

Proverbs 28:14 (NIV) Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

In their book The 5 Pillars of Leadership, Meyer and Slechta posit that the first three fundamentals of leadership are integrity, a servant’s heart and stewardship. The chord of your character, if built with those three strands, will not easily be broken!

For the Christian leader, the source of these strands of character is a reverential and worshipful fear of the Lord: ignoring this fear (The attitude that I will fear no one!) has consequences. There is the final judge. What we do, what we think and what we say ultimately matters.

One of the paradoxes of Christianity is that happiness (blessedness) is born of “fear.”

Know God. - No Fear. Fear God - Know happiness. Are you “blessed?”

For Further Study

Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell