Daily Encouragement: Year 1, Day 19
Adapted from Handbook to Leadership
Personal Development: Dependence on God
Because Jeremiah was obedient to and depended upon God, he suffered at the hands of Israel’s rulers. Yet when the false prophets depended upon themselves, Israel’s leaders rewarded them. The false prophets were on the leaders’ payroll because they told the leaders what they wanted to hear. So the rulers depended on advisors who in turn depended on them. How scary is that? Then again, such arrangements are quite common today.
Jeremiah spoke the lone voice of dissent, but he was right. Through his dependence on God, he was Israel’s one dependable moral leader. See verse 18 for Jeremiah’s statement of the principle to which every godly leader must commit. Jeremiah could depend on God regardless of his circumstances because he had stood in God’s council; he knew God and followed His Word.
We depend on those we trust—that is, those we know, those we spend time with. Many people find it difficult to trust a stranger—even if it is God. So cultivate your relationships carefully, beginning with your relationship with God.