Proverbs 31 as a professional woman – Part 13

Dear loyal readers, I trust that you’re blessed and highly favoured.Last week (part 12), we started looking at success principle 6 which says that Proverbs 31 as a professional woman “adopts servant leadership”. This week, I’m going to briefly look into more examples of servant leaders in the Bible. Moses served a group of difficult people in order to fulfil God’s promise to lead the Israelites to the promised land (Exodus 3:4-10). His story reveals that servant leadership doesn’t mean that you need to do everything on your own. Additionally, it requires you to surrender to the will of God so that His success and victory will be expressed through your obedience (Exodus 18:13-26). Notably, it also requires you to develop the talent under your care so that when you step away, your Joshua is empowered and equipped to lead (Numbers 27:18-20). Even Jesus Christ, who came to earth as God in human form (John 14:9-11, Colossians 2:9, Philippians 2:6-7), gave up His divine privileges (Philippians 2:8) and didn’t do everything on His own. He had 12 disciples whom He trained and equipped to help Him with His earthly ministry and to continue the work when He went to Heaven. In Luke 8:1-3, special mention is made of three women – Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna, who provided for Jesus’s ministry “out of their own means."Meaning that Jesus Christ understood the importance of teamwork, delegation of tasks, the impact of transformation and empowerment as part of the responsibilities of a servant leader towards those under Him.Servant leadership is likely to attract opposition (see the stories of Jesus Christ, Nehemiah and Apostle Paul), but it thrives through love, humility, courage, prayer, Godly counsel, favour with God and with people, wisdom from God and obedience to God to help you make the right decisions (see the book of Esther, Ruth and Daniel).Deborah understood the essence of servant leadership in the multiple roles of a wife, a prophet and a judge (Judges 4:4). I assume that this required a deep understanding and a recognition that different audiences required different types of leadership from her. Meaning that she had to navigate the multi-dynamic aspects of leading as a professional judge who goes to war versus leading as a prophet or perhaps as a mother even.In the modern set-up, Proverbs 31 as a professional woman understands the importance of asking the Lord to help her lead herself so that she can be equipped to lead others in various dynamics and submit to the leading of others as well. She knows that she might serve a dream team (like how Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were to Daniel) or have a Judas Iscariot who might want to jeopardise a given project or assignment – but either way, she continues to trust the Lord to work it all out (Romans 8:28).David was the Lord’s anointed, long before he had any formal title, yet the Lord trusted him to serve in various capacities because His favour was upon him. David is proof that, amongst other things, a servant leader certainly needs favour from God and with people in order to succeed and that your hidden leadership qualities are revealed in challenging situations.Joseph, Jael, Joshua, Apostle Paul and a few more examples of servant leaders who served in challenging circumstances with strength, courage, love and humility exist in the Bible. It’s up to us to study them and see what we can learn and apply from them.Shalom. DISCLAIMER: ‘Proverbs 31 as a Professional Woman’ under the theme 'Embodying and Manifesting Godly Wisdom, Success Principles and Effortless Femininity in the Workplace' is not posited on trying to read the professional woman into Proverbs 31 because this will produce an absurd result. However, I have opted to take a principles-based approach that widens the scope to be applicable to any professional woman – regardless of her age or status.*For more context about who I am and why I’m writing this column titled 'Spirit, Soul and Body', I encourage you to Google search my previous articles titled 'A New Season', 'Seeing God’s Glory Through My Tears' as well as 'Proverbs 31 as a Professional Woman' (the introduction as well as parts 1 to 12) – all published by the Namibian Sun newspaper. I welcome your comments, inputs, queries or concerns. Kindly address them to spirit.soul.body24@gmail.com

Proverbs 31 as a professional woman – Part 13

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-04-29

Please login to leave a comment

Proverbs 31 as a professional woman – Part 13

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-04-29

Please login to leave a comment

Login