John Stanko

"Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel,
who despise justice and distort all that is right;
who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness.
Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price,
and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for
the Lord’s support and say, 'Is not the Lord among us?
No disaster will come upon us'" - Micah 3:9-11.

In this passage, God alerted the leaders to the fact that He knew what they had been doing and He was not pleased. Notice that each one of the leadership roles was doing what they were doing only for the money, and had in effect become mercenaries - giving their services to the highest bidder. What's more, they did this and felt like God was not going to judge their perversion of power; in fact, they felt confident the Lord was on their side! Leaders must all deal with the 'big three' of temptations - sex, money and power - and in this case, the leaders had failed miserably over two of those 'big three.' The lesson is that God is watching leaders and will hold them accountable for any abuse of power.

LEADERSHIP STEP: Your Leadership Step today is to examine your relationship with money and power. Why are you doing what you do? Is it for the money? Are you using your position and authority to enrich yourself? This is not to say that you cannot be rewarded handsomely for your work or gifts, but you cannot allow money to be your main motive. Of course, the major antidote for greed is generosity, so also look at your giving habits during today's reflection.