HEARTLIGHT ® Magazine: Leading in Hope: "The Right Time for Leadership"

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make a long story short, eight months later I had resigned from my ministry position, discouraged, heart-broken, and seriously questioning why God hadn’t used me in the way I had expected.

And then I learned an important lesson from the life of Moses. You see, Moses thought his time had come. At an early age (forty years old to be exact, the same age I was when this event happened), Moses had the desire to rescue his people from their bondage in Egypt. One day he witnessed a Hebrew man being mistreated by an Egyptian. The Bible says, “Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” (Exodus 2:12)

Moses thought the people would recognize that he could rescue them, but they did not. (Acts 7:25) The next day Moses realized someone had not only seen him but the word of what he had done had spread all the way to Pharaoh. We pick up in verse 15: “When Pharaoh heard of this he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian.” It seemed as though Moses’ dream to save the Hebrew people had gone up in smoke.

“Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.”

For the next 40 years Moses tended flocks belonging to his father-in-law. It would appear to the casual observer that Moses had been forgotten by God, that he had failed and had become nothing more than a “could-have-been”. But God hadn’t forgotten about Moses and he certainly hadn’t forgotten about the plight of his people in Egypt.

During the next forty years important changes would take place in Moses’ life to better prepare him for the leadership role he would assume. The years spent in the desert proved crucial to Moses’ development and preparation as a leader. The man God spoke to in the burning bush was a less confident, but much wiser man, than the one who had run from Egypt forty years before.

God came to Moses and said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt...So I have come down to rescue them... ...So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.” Forty years earlier Moses was content to try to kill off the Egyptians one by one. But God had a bigger plan for Moses. A plan whereby Moses would be used by God to save all of Israel from their captivity.

I’ve learned two very important leadership lessons from the life of Moses. First, God’s timing can much different than ours. It’s important to realize that it wasn’t God who made Moses wait forty years to be used in a great way. Moses had made God wait. And second, God’s dreams are much bigger than our own. As a young man Moses had dreamed of helping the people of Israel; a distressed Hebrew here or a maiden in distress there. (Exodus 2:16-19) But God’s plans for him were much greater. And God’s plan for my life has opened more wonderful opportunities to do ministry in His Kingdom than I could have ever dreamed.

In Jeremiah 29:11 the writer says, “For I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” In the same way God has great plans for you as a leader. But too many times we try to live our lives according to our own terms, on our own timing, The most important lesson we learn from the life of Moses is that we will be most effective as a leader if we seek to do God’s will, in God’s way, on God’s timing.

Dear Lord, we pray that we will all come to know your timing in our lives as leaders in your church. I pray for those leaders who have experienced great discouraged and disappointment in their ministry. I pray for their encouragement, for their strength, and a new realization in their lives that you are not done with them yet. That the events in their lives, yes, even the mistakes, even the events that are beyond their control, can be used by you in a marvelous way to bring about your will, your good, pleasing, and perfect will. Amen.