Whose Hand is on Your Bow? Pt1
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 132
Psalm 127
Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
There aren’t many Scriptures about arrows. There are a lot more about bows. When you think of a bow, you think of an arrow. A bow and an arrow work together as one. They are two pieces that make up one instrument. When the Scripture is referring to an arrow, it just mentions the bow. A bow is just a wall ornament unless you have an arrow to go with it.
AN ARROW MUST BE SHARP.
What does it take to be sharp? It takes something applying pressure to the point that is harder than the point, something rubbing against it in a designed order to keep the point sharp.
In the church, and even in our culture, we honor those who have gone through hard times and have become sharper. People who don’t encounter hard things don’t get as sharp as maybe they could. We shouldn’t avoid hardships because they are hard. When we run into hard things, we need to understand that God is sharpening us.
If we are going to be sharp, we need to be able to handle the rocks thrown at us. If we handle them right, if we hit them at the right angle, they are going to sharpen us. More so is the intentional sharpening and understanding when God is calling us to do the hard things. God does call you to hard things. If people tell you He doesn’t, they aren’t reading the same Scripture I am.
You also keep something sharp by keeping it clean. If you use a chainsaw and you hit dirt, you stop and clean it off or it will get dull. Dirt takes our edge away. Sin takes our edge away. A lack of a clear conscience takes your edge away.
AN ARROW MUST BE STRAIGHT.
There has to be a standard, a measurement, a moral code, an ethical code. Without that, we are sharpening the point, pulling the bow back, but the arrow isn’t going to go where it needs to go.
People get released, but if they don’t have a tight spin, a standard, then it doesn’t work. They have gifting (sharpness), but they don’t have anything to mount those giftings on that is straight or true.
AN ARROW MUST BE AIMED.
An arrow has no will. An arrow has no fire power of its own ability. An arrow will never launch itself. It has to be aimed, directed, part of something bigger than itself.
We have to be aimed as people. There is no substitute for the aiming of the Holy Spirit. We are also a part of teams, and there should be direction from the leader.
We can be sharp and straight but aimless, unable to be focused on a target. We need people to help direct us in the way we should go.
THE BOW LAUNCHES THE ARROW.
How does this happen? The bow applies pressure to the arrow. Everyone is under some pressure. Whose hand is on your bow? The world? Your boss? Your mother-in-law? Who is bending your bow?
Who has their hand on a place in your life where they are invited to be there and they can provide the right pressure to launch you? Who do you have that can create intentional tension on your bow? If we don’t invite intentional tension, we will get unintentional tension because our bow is going to be bent by something.
Without tension, a sharp, straight, aimed arrow will go nowhere. It will just fall to the ground. Tension is the very firepower that causes us to hit the target.
We are arrows in the hands of a warrior. Ultimately that is God, but it’s also other people in our lives. Whose hand is on your bow?
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
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