Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the weight of responsibility? Being a leader is far from easy but if God called you to it He won't lead you astray. He wants to guide you through every situation you will face in life. Aaron Wardlaw shares his testimony about personal obstacles he overcame during outreach while being a small group leader.
I was a staff person for SST this summer. SST International is YWAM Tyler's Discipleship and Missions Training for teens. Our role was to walk alongside the teenagers who came for discipleship as they learned to walk with the Lord in faith and pursue a relationship with Jesus.
We accomplished this through small groups, meeting one-on-one, praying, and processing with them, and holding them accountable to what they learned. I had the privilege of leading five young men in a small group. It brought me great joy to watch them grow in their faith, experiencing spiritual breakthroughs while discovering who God is, and their own identity in Him.
I prayed that the Lord would give me His heart for them, and He did. I did not realize that when God gave me His heart for them it would include their burdens, real-life struggles and griefs from their pasts. This challenged me because I realized I could not spiritually meet these teenagers in my own strength and understanding.
When I was also confronted with my own selfishness and old insecurities from when I was a teenager⏤ which I thought were long gone and forgotten⏤I quickly became overwhelmed. At times I felt my efforts to help them were in vain, yet I recognized their burdens were not for me to bear.
How could it be?
I’m not even capable of bearing my own burdens. Everything changed when I chose to
rely on the Lord in prayer. It was when I turned to the Lord in prayer and confessed my desperate need for Him, that I was able to receive His abundant grace to carry on. And it was when I persistently walked with my guys in prayer that I saw them grow as the Lord changed their hearts!
By the power of the Holy Spirit, I was able to get over myself and serve these teenagers in love. One of the guys I mentored went from not wanting to be at SSTs, he only came because of his parents, to sharing the Gospel in joy with almost everyone he encountered on our Dallas outreach! In my experience of staffing SSTs, I learned about God’s love, grace, and power toward us when we choose to put others before ourselves.
No matter where you come from or what you do for a living, we are all created to walk out our lives with God! Aaron's testimony isn't just his experience. His story relates to all of us. Learning to trust takes time, so give yourself some grace and don't give up. It is in our nature to take control. The Bible is filled with examples of moments where leaders would do things with their own strength and fail every single time. Let's learn from their mistakes.
Despite how you think or feel let all your decisions be guided by the Lord and you will witness Him move in miraculous ways.
