Jesus Style Leadership 1 - Call & GraceSample

Offering Grace to the Undeserved

Leadership Lesson

Jesus-style leaders offer grace to those who don’t deserve it.

Read Acts 9:10-19

Comment

Saul/Paul had been on a mission to wipe Christianity from the face of the earth. He had persecuted, arrested, and quite probably killed Christians. So when Ananias got a call from God to pray for Saul's healing, he was understandably reluctant. It would both endanger his own life and maybe jeopardize the future of the whole church. Ananias thought that a blind Saul was a good thing for Christians. God at last was punishing him and stopping his harassment. But Ananias heard from God and understood God’s grace, so he took a risk. I bet he was shaking in his boots, but he believed that God’s grace could even change someone as far gone as Saul. He found Saul, prayed for him, and was used to heal him. The rest is history. The blessings of that act of grace still impact the church two thousand years later. As a Jesus-style leader, God will ask you to offer grace to those who don’t deserve it. Maybe it will be to those who have hurt you or even to those who have opposed you. You will have to trust God because it won’t seem fair. It will be risky and costly, but that is what grace is like.

Prayer

I find it easy to offer grace to people who like me and are much the same as me, but it’s a much bigger challenge when they don’t share my values or priorities or don’t even like me. Please help me to see past my own values and prejudices and to take risks in sharing grace with those whom I don’t think deserve it. Help me to see people through your eyes.

Personal Reflection

Have you come up against people who oppose you or don’t like you or cause problems for you? If so, how have you responded? A grace response is so hard and so good. Does God always call us to offer grace to those who make life difficult for us? What does this look like and when do we need to protect ourselves?