Please Deal with Your Issues First By Ed McDowell
Strong Leaders to Prioritize Their Issues First
Leaders have the responsibility and authority to address issues in others thoughtfully. When addressing something in someone else’s life, consider Jesus’ instruction.
Deal with Your Issues First
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.”
Jesus is speaking to the need for us to care for our issues before offering help to someone else.
Reflection
We are quick to think we know what someone else needs to do, yet we are often slow to be honest about our issues and address them.
Jesus gives us clear direction. Do not try to help someone else when you need to deal with your issues first.
Perhaps the most common area where we put off dealing with our issues while offering plenty of “help” for others is in relationships. When phrases like “you need to do this” or “you should act this way” start coming out of your mouth toward someone else, take a step back and ask yourself if you are really in a position to say such things to someone else.
Leaders can often run past meaningful self-reflection while rushing to respond to someone else’s issue.
What is often true is that what we are ready to declare for someone else is not something we are willing to address in our lives.
Jesus is inviting us to address our issues first.
Encouragement
If the very best version of you could consistently show up in others’ lives, imagine the blessing and encouragement that would be.
If Christ is transforming your life and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, you are learning to show up every day with his purposes, love, and compassion flowing through your life, think about what that would mean to those around you.
The help you offer now comes from a place of transformation. Your insight and guidance are more likely to be given with gentleness and humility, and others are more likely to be open to what you say.
When dealing with your issues, identify the help you need and seek it out. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in getting the help you need. Seek counsel from those you trust. Let God’s word teach you how to live.
Resist the urge to respond immediately to someone else’s challenge. Take a step back and let the Holy Spirit help you with wisdom from God.
I am so glad Jesus isn’t asking you or me to fix anyone else. He asks us to address issues thoughtfully through his forgiveness and righteousness. The Holy Spirit is leading and guiding us in this.
When this happens, we become a real help to others. People are not looking for our advice or directives. They want to see the presence of Christ living through us in a way that blesses and encourages all that is good, right, and beautiful.
What a gift Jesus gives us to help us address our issues first.
Prayer
Dear Jesus,
Thank you for teaching us to care for our issues before thinking we can help others.
Forgive us when we rush to solve or fix something in other people’s lives when we haven’t taken the time to do the work that needs to be done in our own lives.
Thank you for inviting us into a life of transformation through your forgiveness and righteousness.
Holy Spirit, thank you for being with us, leading and guiding us as you help us address the things we need to deal with.
In your name, Jesus, we pray,
Amen
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Ed McDowell is the CEO of Warm Beach Camp Ministries. He also coaches and consults in board leadership and development to bring fresh perspectives to perplexing situations. Ed authorizes a devotional series titled A Well-Planted Faith in an Uprooted Culture. His writing and speaking aim to challenge people to have God’s Word inform how they live. Ed and his wife, Bev, live on Camano Island, Washington, where they live out their mission statement: “to give our lives away for the cause of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible.”
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