THE ORIGINAL SOURCE FOR WOMEN'S LEADERS SINCE 2001
Bringing Your Heart to the Table
Women's Leader Devotion
Julia Bettencourt
September 15, 2023
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. Luke 6:45
Those words in that verse above are what Jesus said when He was teaching about how we are known by our fruit and how that fruit comes from deep within us and from our heart. If you haven't read through that chapter of Luke 6, in a while, I encourage you to do so. I hope you will read through it with new eyes as a leader and think about your women's ministry program when you read through it. That passage can teach us so much as leaders and how we are to go about acting and also interacting with others.
Just take a gander at verses 22 and 23. When you are feeling down and out and persecuted for doing what you think is right in women's ministry, just look at what Jesus told His disciples.
Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. Luke 6:22-23
I find real encouragement in that. I hope you do too! But let's get back to talking about the heart as it mentions in Luke 6:45.
The first thing that comes to my mind is that love that we should have in our hearts. Did you ever think of the love that you will need as a women's ministry leader in your local church? You can have all the skills in the world. You can be a great communicator. You can be a fantastic organizer. You can facilitate Bible studies flawlessly. But if you are a women's leader and don't have love, then something's going to go wrong. Something will be missing. The ministry will be hollow. We have to bring our hearts of love to the table in women's ministry.
Love for the Lord
This entails that personal relationship you have with the Lord. It's great to attend regular church services and find something in the teaching there, but as a leader you have to get into the Word on your own. You have to get into prayer and grow closer with the Lord. You have to develop a true love for your God. It helps bring your heart to the women's program and to what you are doing.
Love for your church
When you are leading the women in a local church, you are going to have to support that church and have a real love for it. Your church and pastoral leadership give you something and someone to be responsible to in the end. Love for your church helps you to want to represent it in a pleasing and wonderful way.
Love for the women you lead
Loving the women in your church congregation is essential. They are the people whose lives you want to impact. They are the people you are trying to reach to bring them closer to the Lord. They are the people who you want to encourage to grow their faith. Loving those women will help you pray for them on a deeper level too. You will accomplish much when you have a love for the women the Lord gives you to lead.
Love for what you are doing
If you are just doing women's ministry because no one else will, then re-evaluate. You can't bring your heart to the program if you don't want to be in that role of leadership. I think about the Apostle Paul and how much he cared and loved for the people and the ministry in which he was involved. We see this in all those letters he wrote to the early churches. Face it. You just don't put your heart into something you don't love.
Final Thoughts
All this love starts in your heart. You can be a leader in the business world, and you can have a cold heart. It probably won't make a difference. Look at the people who are in power in some of our bigger companies in the world. I'm sorry. I'm not seeing a lot of heart in some of the ones I've read about when it comes to their personal stories.
But a women's leader who is part of a local church ministry, they are going to have to have some heart. Having love is going to matter when it comes to ministry and ministering to others.
Let's read through that verse we started with in Luke 6:45 one more time.
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. Luke 6:45
What's in our heart comes out in the end. How can we lead other women if we have all those bad things coming out of us that hurt the cause of Christ?
When something comes up and things are not running properly such as a car that won't run, an appliance that is faulty, or any mechanical thing that isn't working, what is it that we do? We check the source. We see if there is some reason deep inside that is making that car, appliance, or that mechanical thing not work.
So as leaders, what do we check when our team members and volunteers, and even the ladies that attend our activities seem unhappy or there seems to be looming problems? First, we have to look deep inside and do a heart check. The heart is your source. It's where that love is going to flow out of that makes working in your women's ministry program a joy. And as a leader, we have to check ourselves first, and then do those ministry program checks to see if there is something amiss within the program itself. But first, we need to do a personal heart check. We have to be in order as leaders before we can run programs when it comes to ministry.
We must bring our heart to the program. We can't do women's ministry on a head level. There is no way it will work when we don't put our all into it. Superficial just doesn't work where women's ministry is concerned, because ministry programs are deeper than that. The cause of Christ is deeper than that. Eternal lives matter! Women's programs are an arm of a local church, so we can't just half-heartedly serve our churches. We have to do it with our hearts.
As Christian women's leaders, we have to bring our hearts to the table, because our fruit is our truth.
I encourage you to have that love in those four areas I mentioned earlier. Those are, love for the Lord, love for your church, love for the women you lead, and love for what you are doing. And if those four areas of love are not thriving, then look under the hood. Do a heart check on yourself and see if the problem stems from you as a leader.
So, are you bringing your heart to the table?
Copyright ©2023 Julia Bettencourt
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