Christian Leader Under Stress

Exerpt from devotional "Leadership: Insights from the Bible STRESS" by Roland Heersink

Let’s look at advice from the Bible to help manage our stress. This little slogan provides a suitable starting point:

“Do your best, and let Jesus do the rest.”

This may sound overly-simple, but let’s dig into the scriptures behind it.

As we saw in the last reading, the Apostle Paul gave us clear insight as to how to fulfil our role as leaders:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. – Colossians 3:23-24

Doing our best and remembering that we are

working for the Lord – and not just our boss, management team or board – helps reduce stress by keeping perspective.

The second part of our little slogan is about trusting God.

For this, let’s look at a typical example from Jewish history… the nation has strayed from God and times are bad. Here comes the prophet Azariah with a message for King Asa, CEO over the Jewish nation:

The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. He went out to meet Asa and said… “The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. For a long time Israel was without the true God… but in their distress they turned to the Lord… and he was found by them. In those days it was not safe… but as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”

Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life…. There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign. – 2 Chronicles 15:1-7,17b,19

Asa listened to the prophet – his spiritual advisor – and turned the whole nation back to God, with benefits for decades to come.

Some centuries later, King Hezekiah again faced a near-certain end of the empire; look what he did when he received the bad news:

Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth… Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God.” – Isaiah 37:14-20

Both leaders – Asa & Hezekiah – turned to God in their time of need, not only so their problems might be solved, but that God might be glorified as well.

The second part of our little slogan – let Jesus do the rest – means turning to God in faith and trusting Him in your leadership, regardless of the issues you may face.

Seeking God in our time of stress and praying for His wisdom, His intervention – to His glory – is the very best step we can take as we face stressful situations of any type in our leadership today.