Following Before Leading
Today’s devotional
The demands of leadership can fill our attention before we have asked what is shaping us. People need an answer. A task needs direction. A future needs words. Beneath those responsibilities lies a quieter question: whose way am I practicing while I ask others to follow?
In Luke's account, Peter identifies Jesus as God's Christ. Jesus immediately speaks of suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection. His invitation to discipleship belongs within that revelation of his own path. Taking up the cross daily means receiving his claim upon the shape of our lives. It reaches beyond admiration into allegiance, including the desires we protect and the power we exercise.
For a leader, surrender often appears in an ordinary decision. We allow someone else to receive credit. We admit that our first interpretation was mistaken. We make time for a concern that slows a preferred plan. These choices can be costly because they touch our sense of importance. Christ meets us there with a life given in love. His call does not make every demand from another person a duty, but it does ask us to examine what our choices serve.
Following remains a daily relationship throughout a lifetime of leadership. Prayer, Scripture, trustworthy companions, and honest correction help keep that relationship visible. You can be responsible for a decision while remaining a person who needs grace. Before preparing the next invitation you will give others, receive Christ's invitation yourself. Ask how his truth and self-giving love might reshape one conversation, one use of authority, or one quiet action that nobody else will notice.
Adapted from Chapter 2: Learning to Follow Christ in Never No Way by Dr. R. C. Titus.
Read the Scripture
Open each passage and read slowly. Notice what these words reveal about God and the life before you.
Luke 9:18-24 · WEBU
18As he was praying alone, the disciples were near him, and he asked them, “Who do the multitudes say that I am?”
19They answered, “ ‘John the Baptizer,’ but others say, ‘Elijah,’ and others, that one of the old prophets has risen again.”
20He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
21But he warned them and commanded them to tell this to no one,
22saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.”
23He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
24For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake will save it.
Pause and respond
For reflection
What desire or habit needs to yield to Christ in the way I lead today?
A practice for today
Before one decision, read the passage slowly and name the personal stake you are carrying. Choose a response that expresses Christ’s care for the people involved, including appropriate boundaries.
A prayer
Jesus, keep me close to you while I carry responsibility. Examine the desires beneath my decisions and teach me to receive correction. Give me courage to surrender what serves only my importance, and wisdom to offer truthful, generous leadership. Let my public work grow from a life that continues to follow you. Amen.
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