Have you asked yourself, “Why do I want power and Influence?” (128-3)

A leader by nature has power and influence. Power and influence are essential to leadership and without them it is impossible for leaders to lead. What a leader does with their power and influence matters more than they may realize. Read Psalm 82:1-8.

God had established a system whereby the Jewish people could get fair legal rulings from impartial leaders He called judges. Much of America’s legal system is built on the Biblical model God gave the Jews. Because of the authority in their role as God’s delegates and image bearers, these leaders are referred to as “gods” (v. 1). Psalm 82 describes a scene in which God chastises and challenges Israel’s judges. Rather than being accountable to defend the “weak and fatherless” and to protect the “poor and oppressed” these leaders were “defend(ing) the unjust” and “show(ing) partiality to the wicked.”

These leaders were given godlike functions in their role as judges and their power had given them a sense of invincibility. Power and influence can be an enormous force for good as long as a leader does not focus on the self-serving aspects of power. Christian leaders must never allow their mind to envision positions or titles. When a Christian leader is put into a position to gain additional power and authority, their starting point should be to ask a simple question “Why do I want it.” For the Christian leader, there should be only one answer: “I want power and influence because with it I can better serve God, people, and this organization.” Anything less violates the trust of the God who granted you the power. The judges spoken of in Psalm 82 forgot something basic that no leader can afford to forget—power ultimately belongs to God and God will ultimately judge the leaders He granted power and influence.

Luke 12:48b, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”