[Life of David] From Shepherd to King Sample

Guard your heart from pride

Being a leader is difficult, being an influencer is hard, and handling it with success is even harder. Day by day we can see that YouTubers, TV show stars, streamers, TikTokers, who become famous very quickly often lose sight of what they wanted to communicate or their original intention.

All people are susceptible to this problem. King David was not the exception. After a decade or more of fleeing from Saul, David’s time of being out in the fields came to an end. He was finally made king and sat on the throne of Israel. Everything was okay. He had no more problems and had made it to the top of the heap. David was so powerful that kings from other reigns were giving him gifts. Now he was living in a palace. God’s hand was upon him. As all these things were happening, maybe he began to think, “I want one more thing. I want more of this. I want more of that.”

The seed of pride was planted in him. “I want what I want when I want it” is the death of leadership. True leadership is about serving others to help them reach their full potential. When the purpose is flipped and the leader wants to use his position or his followers to serve himself, his leadership and influence are about to end.

Success can be a blessing; it can honor God in great ways and be a wonderful thing. But if we let our hearts puff up with pride, we can take our eyes off obeying God, igniting the desire to build our kingdom instead of God’s. It is so easy for pride to fester in the leader’s heart because now you’re in charge, you got your little kingdom, you must keep it and maintain it. The easiness of success turns into the sourness of the anxiety of how to get more without losing what you’ve got. The greater the risk of losing, the more scared you can get. If you let pride start to fester inside, it can begin to wilt your heart for God and the people you serve. Don’t harbor pride but do your best to obey God. Don’t lose your servant heart in the process, because leadership is all about serving others