Read: Psalm 72
HEAR JESUS
What happens when you don’t get any rain?
Your grass turns brown, dries up and gets crusty.
Does this happen overnight?
Of course not. It’s a gradual process that ends with you standing in your yard wondering how your grass that you worked so hard for ended up burnt to a crisp. Yes, very personal wound with the lack of rain we had in Southwest Missouri this fall!
Leadership is the same way. When you stop receiving the rain, your leadership starts to dry up. But you can keep pushing through. The skills and experience you’ve acquired allow you to keep going without others noticing…until it’s too late. And you’re standing there wondering how what you worked so hard for got burned up to a crisp.
After a leader experiences a drought, others begin to put the puzzle pieces together. “Oh,” they’ll say, “I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but I could feel something change. Now I know why.”
What happens when the rain comes?
The grass thrives. It turns green. It grows. You have to mow it. Or pay someone to. Or get your kid to!
May he come down like rain upon the mown grass, Like showers that water the earth. Psalm 72:6
Psalm 72 is what I call “The Leader’s Prayer.” Most likely, this is the prayer prayed by David over Solomon at his coronation. The prayer is about the leader thriving. But not thriving because of them or for their own sake.
The leader’s thriving comes because God is involved. The first verse prays for this, “Give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness to the king’s son.” This points to the New Testament concept of justification. Or, to be declared righteous by God.
We try to achieve our own righteousness. Inside religion. But also inside work. Whatever you think is “righteousness” inside your industry, you’ll strive after. Righteousness is a standard. And every single one of us has a standard we try to achieve on our own.
Instead, God declares you at the same standard as Jesus. No doubt you’ve heard this inside the context of church. I want to let you know that he views you as “meeting the standard” inside your work too.
This doesn’t mean you stop working. God has a work for you to accomplish and thrive in. This means you Hear & Follow him into how he wants you to thrive. You don’t work to reach the standard. You work from how he works inside of you. This Psalm does not shy away from the leader thriving because of what God does in his life. But thriving is bigger than the financial blessings you receive.
You don’t work to reach the standard. You work from how he works inside of you.
Thriving in life is like the rain. You see it. Then it goes into the ground and then the impact the rain has is invisible. When you Hear & Follow Jesus, you’ll “see” the time you spend with him, but you can’t see how it goes into you and then benefits you. You have to trust how he leads you will thrive you.
There are three activities that God leads you toward that will thrive you:
Community
Rest
Growth
God will use the relationships you have to deepen your Purpose. The rest you take will restore your Purpose. And the growth you do will fuel your Purpose.
You do each one, but you don’t know the impact of each until much farther down the road. And the opposite is true. Don’t do them, continue to work at your own standard and you’ll find yourself in a drought. You’ll look around and wonder how you ever got to that point.
God wants to do something inside of you that only he can do. He wants to thrive you in a way that you could never. He does this by blessing you with every blessing in the heavenly places. And because of this blessing, he does something inside of you that you would never dream of.
But not for the thriving to stop with you. God thrives you so that you can thrive others.
So much so that the bottom gets the benefit of the blessing.
Here is the order of the prayer:
Come to God
God thrives you
You thrive others
God has you in your life, work and leadership so that you can thrive others from the overflow that he gives to you. Come to him to ask him to make you into his image more and more each day. Let him flood you with who he is. And as the flood overflows you, you help others thrive.
Impossible Prayer
God, how do you want me to thrive others around me?
FOLLOW JESUS
Leadership Challenge
God has you right where he wants you in your life, work and leadership. But not just for you. He wants others to thrive because you are in their life.
How do you help the bottom receive the benefits of the blessing?
For a bit of inspiration, listen to A Bit of Optimism podcast Season 6, Episode 18: Remembering Bob Chapman: The Mentor Who Changed My Life.
Multiply Yourself
How can you discover how those around you benefit from the blessing?
This is probably awkward to ask directly. So here are some ideas:
Anonymous survey.
Walk around to see if people are enjoying their work.
Review your growth budget and how it’s used.
Look past the big benefits like health and 401k. Are people actually using the smaller ones you offer?
Watch whether those you lead come to work on Monday restored.
At home, watch the dinner table for who lights up and who goes quiet.
Notice whose tank is running low at home, and plan one thing that fills it.
This Week
Passage: Psalm 72
Hear: If you have no other plan, read it once a day. Where is God sending rain on your leadership, and where are you in a drought?
Follow: Put one of the three on your calendar this week: Community, Rest or Growth.
Multiply: Try one idea above to discover how the people you lead benefit from the blessing.
Next Monday: Every person encounters a church who streams people to God (Isaiah 2:1-5).
The Purpose Course Pre-Launch
This week’s Huddle comes from the back half of The Purpose Course. Modules 4 through 6 take you through the three activities from today: Community that deepens your Purpose, Rest that restores it and Growth that fuels it. Together, they help you keep receiving the rain instead of drifting into a drought, so you thrive and thrive others. Pre-launch pricing is $50 through January 3.