Leading in Love

Mark 12:30 NIV

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

One of the speakers at the Global Leadership Summit was the pastor of a church in Nairobi, Kenya - Oscar Muriu.  He was speaking about how to mentor young leaders and used todays verse with verse 31 also.  He spoke about how young leaders need to know the five loves - heart, soul, mind, strength, and neighbor.

The heart will reveal one's character.  Everyone can benefit from character training.  God invested in our lives by giving us His Holy Spirit to guide and comfort us.  Along with gifting us, He empowers us to act in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Our soul impacts our convictions.  Convictions motivate our passions and put boundaries in place to keep us from straying.  As Christians,  our convictions are for learning and for acting out our faith.  Acting in our convictions reveals our love for God and how much we value the love from God.

Our mind is for comprehension.  Leading others requires a full understanding of mission and of people.  Learning is critical for leaders.   Understanding what is being taught,  however, impacts lives.  The more we know about God, the more we find we need Him.  Love is not about being needy but about recognizing how relationship with God grows us.  The more we grow the more we have to offer.

Our strength reveals competence.  Are we adequately being responsible with God's love, our spiritual gifts, and to those with whom we have influence?  The answers will tell us if we are holding back from God (I will admit that I have been guilty here many times).  Every time we hold back is one less opportunity to experience God's grace and blessing.   God withheld nothing for us.

Neighbors reveal our compassion.  To love others properly we have to love ourselves.  Why?  We never love others more than we love ourselves, and we find it hard to love ourselves until we know how much God loves us.  We are important to Him. 

I hope you have a moment to reflect in these today.  Pray and see how God speaks to you about them.