In my last two posts I shared two of four keys, from the life of Moses, that God uses to make a leader:

• Leaders are made through brokenness before experiencing breakthrough
• Leaders are made in private before recognized in public

Each of these play an important role in God’s developmental process for growing mature and God-honoring leaders. Here’s the third key God uses to make a leader: Leaders are Made Through Faithfulness in the Small Things Before Entrusted with the Big Things.

Exodus 3:1 says, “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.” It was at this mountain that Moses had his burning bush experience (we’ll talk more about that in the next post) before returning to Egypt where God used him to deliver the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. Here’s what I find interesting–Moses went from being the prince of Egypt to the shepherd of Jethro to the Deliverer of Israel. Had Moses not been faithful as a shepherd, he would never have been promoted as a deliverer.

Because of his faithfulness, the lessons learned in the desert, and his humble service before God, we read the outcomes in Acts 7:35-36.

“This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.”

God entrusted Moses with the ultimate “big thing” when he used him to lead two million Jews out of Egyptian bondage. But had Moses never learned to be faithful as a shepherd, it’s doubtful he would have ever carried out this mission as a deliverer. Faithfulness gives you moral authority–notice that the Israelites followed him AFTER Moses proved faithful, not before. And faithfulness is sensitive to the timing of God–note this powerful line from Acts 7: “He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself…” Faithfulness is a big deal in God’s leader-making economy.

Question: What is God calling you to be faithful in? Why should He trust you with greater responsibility and opportunity?