God Teaches Me to Lead

I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you in the way you should go. Isaiah 48:17

In lots of areas, I'm on a very steep learning curve. This goes without saying, but if I'm learning, that means there's lots of stuff that I don't know yet. Also, it means that I'm making a lot of mistakes.

I like to know everything and be fully qualified before I step into leading others... But that isn't God's pattern. He loves to promote humble people who have lots to learn.

One of the lies that comes at me is that since I'm making lots of mistakes, people would be better off without me... that somehow I'm going to mess things up to the point that I should quit while we're still all ahead. But this verse says that there is "profit," even in the learning curve. Other verses say it even more clearly (2 Cor. 12:9, Judges 6:14-16, Ex. 4:10-12, Phil. 4:13). The enemy is trying to get us to quit by making us feel like we have nothing to offer. While we don't have much to offer, if we offer it in Jesus' name, He can take it and multiply it (Matt. 14:13-21, Acts 3:6). These are verses I'm holding onto for dear life...

On the other hand, the enemy is also happy if we refuse to learn from our mistakes. He says that we are free to take advantage of God's grace and that there won't ever be any consequences if we continue to fail. This is also a lie (Rom. 3:5-8, James 2:26, Heb. 5:11-14, Zech. 7:11-14)! If the disciples made lots of mistakes in their learning process of becoming apostles, I should be willing to do the same. However, they eventually grew in wisdom and authority through the humble learning process. If I'm really changing, the same will be true of me.

While I don't want to write myself off for my mistakes, I also don't want to pretend that they aren't there or that they don't matter. I want to walk right down the middle of the straight, narrow path... Willing to learn and also willing to lead.