The Power of Womenಮಾದರಿ

The Power of Training Yourself

In any leadership role, there is a spiritual responsibility for the people you lead. This can settle around our shoulders like a heavy jacket–a comfort in the purpose it confirms, but exhausting to wear while trying to get things done. Eventually, its weight may make us question our purpose and calling.

We were not meant to bear this weight alone.

But what do you do if, for a season, you don’t have someone to help carry the load? What if you’ve experienced rejection? What if you've started questioning the calling God has shared with you?

1 Timothy 4:6-16 serves as a template for mentorship when we are asking these types of questions. Paul encourages Timothy to train himself! Timothy had looked to his mentor Paul for help in his ministry, but his spiritual growth didn’t end when Paul left. Despite Paul’s absence, Timothy’s life moved forward, and his growth was still a priority, even when there was no one to keep him accountable!

While Paul and Timothy had limited access to parts of the scripture we now refer to as the Bible, we are blessed to have the whole thing! When we feel alone while pursuing God's calling on our lives, we can always look to Jesus as the ultimate mentor. Revisiting the four gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry and prayerfully considering how He interacts with the downtrodden and brokenhearted can teach us how we can grow to do the same.

Training yourself is not a replacement for community, discipleship, or mentorship. But it is a way to continue spiritual growth when these things may be absent for a season. We don’t have to reach a certain “level” or be “a good investment” to be worth mentoring. That’s not where our worth comes from.

Your value is not contingent on your performance as a "student.” God loved you before you stepped into ministry, and he will love you long after you’ve shared your final message.

So continue growing, with or without a mentor. There is power in training yourself.

Prayer & Reflection

1. Whose approval am I trying to earn?
2. Where might God be calling me to “train myself?”

Written by Jordan Ravensbergen