He’s standing in your way, he’s mean and ugly, and he’s on assignment from hell to hinder you. 

He could be a leader, a co-worker, an associate, or a mother in law (not mine). So why should I bother? 

If your goal is career advancement, don’t bother, just go find a new job where you can work with perfect people. But if you are looking for God’s empowerment to accomplish a purpose beyond your natural possibilities then stay, and here’s why.

We often find ourselves stuck working with someone belittling, harsh, or just plain ignorant, sometimes it’s our a boss. King David was a leader that everybody liked, but look at Israel’s history, church history, and your history, there have been as many bad leaders as good.

How you respond to people, the sweet and the ugly, determines how God responds to you. 

Here’s why we should not quit:

1. Quiting becomes a habit, an addiction to the fantasy that success happens because of great circumstances. In reality, every quit resets your influence back to zero. 

2. To quit I must be right in my own eyes, then pride blinds me to the opportunities for success that are wonderfully hidden in my rotten circumstances. 

3. Quiting is how we fail the test meant to qualify us for the next level of greatness. Our responsibility is to humble ourselves, God’s is to prove us and lift us up.

4. And here’s the lever, it’s a principle that works in the fourth dimension: if we quit now we forfeit receiving the rewards for injustices that are to be committed against us. 

Blessing those who are against us is the currency that God honours by giving us favour beyond what we can ask or think. Just be nice to someone who doesn’t deserve it and watch what happens.

If you give your boss more than he deserves, God will give you more than you deserve – His supernatural favour. Is it easier to give an ugly boss more than he deserves, or a good one? Every significant jump ahead in my life has come when I returned blessing for unjust treatment, not only to leaders but to anybody.

By not taking justice into my own hands I prove that I trust God to be greater than man, and greater than circumstances. If God is for me who can be against me? 

Peter said to be submissive to our masters, not only the good but the harsh as well. If you are beaten for your faults, God says, “fair enough,” but if you suffer patiently after having done good, you are acting like Christ and God commends you with grace and favour (charis). (I Peter 2:18-25)

This is how people like you and me can leverage difficult relationships or circumstances and come out with more success than we could ever deserve.

This idea begs another question: When people follow me whole heartedly, is it because I am a good leader?