September 3, 2026 Devo

In our staff meeting yesterday, I asked the team to do some self-assessment and share what they believed to be their greatest leadership asset or quality and their greatest leadership challenge or liability. It’s a harder exercise than you might think. Most of us struggle to “go deep” with ourselves. We know who we WANT to be. We’re probably even in touch with what our INTENTIONS are. But who we ARE—the good, the bad, and the ugly—is not something we like to really reflect on. That’s why I told the team that we must always keep in mind that the hardest person to lead is ourselves.
Take a deep breath and sit with that for a few minutes. How good of a handle do you feel like you have on YOU? Honestly. Most of us find it infinitely easier to see the flaws in other people’s lives than we do our own. THEY have bad attitudes. We just have rough mornings sometimes. THEY are mean. We’re just firm. THEY are selfish and narcissistic. We just have boundaries. You get the point. We tend to see others through the eyes of judgment. We mostly see ourselves through the eyes of grace.
God was sending Ezekiel to deliver a hard message to His People. It was a message of confrontation. But notice what God says to Ezekiel in our passage today: “Son of man, let all my words sink deep into your own heart first. Listen to them carefully for yourself.” Boom! In other words, God says, “Before you preach it to them, preach it to YOU! Let My Word prick YOUR heart. Let My Spirit move in YOU. Look in the mirror and ask yourself if YOU are living up to all that I am asking of you. Lead YOU before you try to lead them!”
God’s Word to Ezekiel was a powerful reminder to all of us. We need to spend a lot more time examining ourselves than we do picking apart other people. We need to do regular, deep-soul reflection, rather than telling ourselves that we’re “fine.” We need to let the Spirit of God wrestle with US more than we pray for the Spirit of God to deal with others. David said it this way in Psalm 139: “Search me, O Lord, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any wicked thing in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” And I’m going to add that if you’re not finding a “wicked thing” every once in a while, you’re not looking deep enough. Remember, the hardest person for you to lead is YOU. That’s God’s Word for you today.