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This post is part of our Sunday Series titled “Articles of Faith.”
We investigate leadership lessons from the Bible.
See the whole series here. Published only on Sundays.
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We live in a world where leaders are constantly bombarded with leadership messages that make big promises or guarantees.  All kinds of people and organizations are clamoring to get our attention, everyday. It is often times just a lot of noise.

If you sit back and analyze some or all of the clamoring, I bet you’d agree that it comes from people and organizations that want something from you rather than from those who are willing to give you something.  Am I right?  Most of the clamor is about trying to make you a better leader.  The secular world is placing a tremendous amount of pressure on organizational leaders of all types to follow their leadership methods.

Consider the Source

While they don’t necessarily come out and say that we should turn our backs on God’s methods, a reasonable analysis of the content will clearly show that their source was probably not from Scripture.  Am I saying that all the secular writing is off-base – certainly not.  There is some really great stuff out there.  I am saying that we need to be careful who we listen to and from whence they obtain their thoughts, ideas and suggestions for making us better leaders.

Those of us who are leaders committed to following a Biblical worldview and Biblical principles have to be careful who we are listening to for information on how to do this ‘leadership thing‘ better. We have to be careful where we are seeking advice to handle life’s difficult problems.  We are running the great risk of relying on the “wisdom” of the secular world instead of God’s wisdom. We can easily be led astray even by well-intentioned individuals, consultants, bloggers, bosses, or other advisors who we turn to in time of need.

Consider a couple of verses from Scripture:

Psalm 1 talks about man being blessed if he follows the law of the Lord and walks in the counsel of the godly. The wicked, or those who don’t follow the law of the Lord, are like chaff that the wind blows away!

Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (or discipline, depending on the translation used).

Proverbs 2 is clear about the requirement God places on us to consider carefully the sources from whom we obtain our wisdom; it spells out the consequences we will face if we fail to follow His wisdom. Consider verses 12-15: “Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.”

Does the description of wicked, evil, devious, perverse words remind you of the secular or worldly messages we are receiving today?

Does it seem clear to you who God expects us to listen to? What does He call us if we listen to people who are not connected with Him and His purposes? He call them fools!  So, who are you listening to for your advice on being a leader, running a company, being a parent, or just being a friend to someone? Are you listening to God and godly people, or to fools?  Apparently, those are our only two choices.

This article was taken from linked2leadership.com