The most difficult person we will ever have to lead is ourselves. So important is Self-Leadership that the Bible mentions the word self-control 174 times and the word discipline 169 times. (Deb Preston, Self-Control in the Bible)

The apostle Paul tells of the high priority he placed on Self-Leadership in his first letter to the Corinthians where he writes, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. EVERY athlete exercises self-control in ALL things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable. So, I do not run aimlessly; I …

(41)  “GOD DOESN’T MAKE JUNK” 

I will never forget the letter I received from a lady who had met with me to discuss her concerns about her son. She wrote: “I came to see you about my son but somehow you sensed I needed help. You helped me realise that I was worth loving, and that God actually valued me. I came from our talk feeling that I had insulted God for thinking someone he created was worthless, and I was suddenly convinced God loved me as I am and I wanted to shout it to everyone. It took the rest of the day to calm down. What a lovely …

“As my class……read the gospels and watched movies about Jesus’ life, we noticed a striking pattern. The more unsavoury (undesirable, outcast, disrespectable) the characters, the more at ease they seemed to feel around Jesus. In contrast, Jesus got a chilly response from more respectable types. I remarked to the class how strange this pattern seemed, since the Christian church now attracts respectable types who closely resemble the people most suspicious of Jesus when He was on earth. What has happened to reverse the pattern of Jesus’ day. Why don’t sinners like being around us?”
THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW by Philip Yancey

God’s purpose for each of us is that …