Speak into the lives of others

Author Mark Sanborn has said, "Great leaders help people have a larger vision of themselves." One of the most important things we can do is to speak into the lives of other people words that will help them elevate their self-confidence and belief in their God-given gifts and abilities.

Several years ago I was assisting a church with their pastor search. This was a very strong church whose previous pastor had served there for over two decades. They were having a lot of trouble finding the person they believed God had prepared for them. One day I thought of a pastor serving a church not that far from the one seeking a new pastor. He had not expressed interest in leaving his church although I knew he was struggling with their unwillingness to do much despite his best leadership efforts.

I called this pastor and asked his permission to submit his name to this church. Like Moses, he kept telling me all the reasons he couldn't possibly become the pastor of that church. I kept telling him that I believed he was ready to serve that church, and I was convinced he would do a good job. He kept disagreeing with me. Finally, I asked him to do two things: He and his wife should pray about this, and I asked him to contact another minister whose opinion I knew he respected and ask him if he believed this pastor was ready to serve this larger church. A few days later he called and told me he had done both things I asked, and if I still believed he could do a good job in that church he would give me permission to give his name to the search team. He continues to serve that church well today. All he needed was someone to help him develop a larger vision of himself than he had.

As the pastor of a small, rural church I often told our congregation how much I believed in them. I told them that I believed in them more than some of them believed in themselves, and I would regularly challenge our church to stretch ourselves more than some felt comfortable. Because the church had struggled for years prior to my going there the first few challenges were rather small, but as the congregation successfully completed those challenges, the next ones became larger. Our congregation did some amazing things during my time there, and it was all because they began to see a larger vision of themselves. I believe they began to see themselves as God sees them.

Many people go through life beaten down by people who speak doubt and discouragement into them. Eventually, when you hear those negative messages often enough you begin to believe them, and soon a never-ending loop of self-doubt begins to run through your mind. This makes it hard for someone to accomplish much of value or to even see the use in trying to do anything.

Each of us needs people in our lives who will speak words of power and victory into our lives. We need to know people believe in us and want to see us succeed. Each of us also needs to be persons who are speaking such words into the lives of others. We may turn around the life of someone by the positive words we speak to them. At the very least, we may change someone's day just by letting them know we believe in them and so does God. Look for ways to speak these words to someone today.