As followers of Christ; in other words, as imitators of Christ, everything we’re doing on this earth must be done in such a fashion that pleases and glorifies the God whom we’re serving. Our foremost objective as Christians is to glorify Him in everything we’re doing (1 Corinthians 10:31) by allowing Him to be preeminent. We have to really give Him a chance in order for Him to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords in our daily lives by relying heavily on Him.
Things That Must Be Remembered:
- Seeking God’s will is the key to true, fulfilling, peaceful, and joyful success in this life.
- You have to bend your own human wisdom, understanding, will, and skills to the authority of God’s Word.
- Trusting God is the essence of the Christian life; which means you have to trust Him with your business.
- You need to seek His guidance through prayer.
- You must be good steward with your resources since God may stop providing where there is no proper management.
God as a loving, supportive, and caring Father has provided us through His Word vital life principles that we can use in order for us to be successful in what we’re doing on this earth. Most importantly, God operates on the basis of principle; therefore, that’s how He desires for us to operate in the realm we live in.
We’re told that in all our ways to acknowledge Him, and He will make straight our paths according to (Proverbs 3:6). There’s another powerful Scripture verse found in (Proverbs 16:3), which states that commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans. So if we want God to guide us, prosper, or bless something that we’re undertaking, it’s very important that we seek first His will.
Living on this earth has imposed a number of ongoing obligations upon us; therefore, we have to work in order to make a living. God Himself has commanded us to work (2 Thessalonians 3:10; 1 Timothy 5:8). So in order for us to be successful in this life, we have to be ambitious by having goals whether they be short term or long term. Having said that, God doesn’t have any problem at all with people wanting to have money since nobody can operate in this life without money; however, the problem lies with the love of money (1 Timothy 6:10; Matthew 6:24; Hebrews 13:5).
So if you are businessperson or a business owner, or you have plan to become either of one them, then your responsibility is to run your business on the basis of the key principles as well as values of God’s Kingdom. We’ll go over a handful of vital principles that you can use as the core foundation of your business, so that you can become the best businessperson or business owner as possible. Well, it’s such a long article. Take your time and learn something useful that will revolutionize your life and your business.
1) The Word of God Must be The Core Foundation.
Before we move on with this teaching, I’d like to ask these 5 very important questions concerning which role you allow the Word of God to play in how you run your business.
- Which priority do you give the Word in your life?
- How often do you seek wisdom from the Word when you’re about to make critical business decisions?
- Are you running your business on the ground of the principles and values found in God’s holy Word?
- Do you rely much more on your own understanding, wisdom, or business skills than you do on God’s Word because it’s a more expedient thing to do?
- If God were to evaluate your business in accordance with His Word, would He be satisfied with how you run it?
At the end of the day, we just can’t stress enough the importance of relying heavily on the Word to guide us in our daily lives (Psalm 119:105; Hebrews 4:12; Matthew 7:24). Because the foremost way that God speaks is through His own written Word. You have to make a daily habit of spending quality amount of time reading the Word by allowing the Spirit of God to guide you.
It’s important that before you start reading the Word that you pray God to increase your sensitivity and awareness toward the deep truths hidden within His Word. Here’s the correct and proper way that you should read the Bible.
- You should read with a repentant heart in case there’s something in your life God wants you to address.
- You should read with an expectation that the Holy Spirit who is the author and the One carrying out His mighty works through the Word will direct you.
- You should read the Bible with an honest, open mind since your job is not trying to get God to agree with you on what you’d like to get done but to let Him guide you how He sees fit.
- The Word should be read honestly, prayerfully, and openly.
So if you’re struggling with a particular issue that you can’t seem to get under control; find a Scripture that relates to it. Then pray over it, meditate on it continually in order to drive it deep into your spirit (Psalm 1:2; Joshua 1:8), and let God to speak to you by asking Him, “What do You want to teach me from that passage of Scripture?“; “How can I apply it in my current circumstance?” Lastly, you need to be very cautious with how you read the Word because it’s very easy for you to read what isn’t there as a result of your sense of urgency to deal with a problem.
2) Trusting God
If you truly want to run a God-centered business, you have to trust Him. So let’s take a look at one of the most powerful verses regarding how to trust God.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).
Where do you place your trust? How often you have such a wonderful idea that comes up into your mind that you’re quite excited about because of thinking that it’s going to revolutionize your business, but when you try it, you get such a horrible outcome? Lot of times, you cannot wait to implement such idea due to intense curiosity, but the result that you get after implementing it isn’t even worth all the excitement and enthusiasm that you experienced.
So it’s time to let God Himself run the business you have through you by stopping to rely on your own human wisdom, understanding, and knowledge since He has perfect and absolute knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of everything. Trusting God is a matter of you relying on His integrity and reliability to guide you through important life’s decisions and protect you from disastrous blunders. So when things are not going well for you, whom do you look up to?
I know there are many people who are very successful in the field of business while not having any relationship with God, but look at their behaviors and attitudes when something tragic happens to their riches. Their trust is placed in their business and money. Money is their god, so their trust is as fragile and volatile as the very things in which their trust is placed. However, as Christians, we want to ensure that our trust is placed in the living God alone.
3) Seeking God’s Guidance Through Prayer
Prayer is a vital part of our Christian life (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; Deuteronomy 4:29; Matthew 7:7-8). Prayer is the means through which you invite God to get involved in the issues that you’re struggling with. Prayer is also the means through which you build your intimate relationship with your heavenly Father. Isn’t it a fantastic idea for you to work in partnership with the infinite God in your business by getting Him involved in the decisions you’re making by consulting Him first for guidance?
Do you usually find yourself in a rush trying to get into your business at the expense of sacrificing critical prayer time with God? Are you so business-minded to the extent that you happen to trust your own business skills than seeking God’s guidance and wisdom through prayer? Do you allow your mind to become so preoccupied with tasks that you have to complete in any given day keep you from seeking God through prayer?
You should develop a very firm reliance on Him through prayer time to the extent that you feel greatly troubled if you didn’t pray on any given day. Why? Not praying to God before going to your daily activities is tantamount to leaving Him behind, or at your home. What you really have by praying to Him is that you allow His grace, mercy, favor, protection, power, and blessings to cover the entire day.
God is very pleased, honored, and glorified when we acknowledge our own human limitations by seeking His guidance. Lot of times, we fail miserably in what we’re doing not because success wasn’t possible, but we didn’t seek first for His guidance. Success in this life is a matter of making decisions; however, we have the all-knowing God on our side who is willing to guide us if we’re willing to trust Him.
4) Honoring God With Your Finances By Investing in His Kingdom.
We’re called by God to be good steward with our financial resources. One of the main responsibilities of being a good steward means that giving back to God what is rightfully His (Malachi 3:10). One of the ideal ways to demonstrate your honor toward God is by giving back to Him joyfully, generously, and sacrificially. If you truly want God to bestow His blessings upon your business abundantly, you have to dedicate a portion of the money that you make to advancing His Kingdom and His cause. I’d like you to read these Scripture verses below and start taking God at His own Word.
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine (Proverbs 3:9-10).
Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:6-7).
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Luke 6:38).
The best and the most secured place that we can invest our money is in the Kingdom of God. How? You contribute generously to your local church. If there’s another ministry that’s having an impact on you, you can also consider supporting them as well in order to help them expand their reach further to more and more people. The fact that you’ve been blessed didn’t just happen overnight. That means there were investments and vital preparations that were made consistently which have enabled a particular ministry to become a blessing to you.
Others have chosen to contribute their own resources which have helped to keep that particular ministry’s vision alive until you end up getting blessed; therefore, you should do just as the previous contributors did in order to help creating and maintaining a blessings’ pathway for others.
The other way you can invest in God’s Kingdom is to help needy people. What you really need to understand is that God can answer someone else’s prayer who is in dire need through your own generosity. Many time, you are the very one whom God will use in order to bless someone else who is in dire need. Just think about that for a while. See How to exercise our faith in God through loving others.
You can also consider partnering with ministries that are helping those who are in serious need all around the world. There are so much sufferings in the world we’re living in while there’s so little we can do to alleviate that problem. The big issue is that God will never come in person to make a difference in those people’s lives, but He’s relying on people like you and I to be loving, caring, supportive, compassionate, and generous to them. So just a small donation that you make can make a world of difference in the life of someone.
Here are some powerful reasons as to why that you should invest in God’s Kingdom.
- You are making an eternal investment that can never be lost (Matthew 6:19-20). In other words, you’re making an investment that you will never regret of doing it.
- You’re honoring God by blessing His own work along with His cause with the same blessing He has bestowed upon your life through Christ.
- You’re helping ministries to fulfill the great commission that our Lord and Savior has commanded us to carry out (Matthew 28:16-20).
- You will be making a huge difference that will last for all eternity in the lives of others.
- Lastly, everything contribution that you make can be seen as ammunition you’re providing to ministries in order to further equip them with the vital resources that will enable them to dismantle the kingdom of darkness.
Conclusion
As Christians, if it turns out that you have that awesome opportunity to be a businessperson or a business owner, you should seize it to show the world how you can responsibly, effectively, and successfully run a business on the basis of the key principles and values found within the Word of God. Having said that, your primary job is to be salt and light within your business environment (Matthew 5:13-16), so that God can be glorified, particularly in the area of how you treat your employees or coworkers.
Most importantly, one thing that’s quite noticeable in the gospels is that Christ actually talks a great deal about money and doing business. Since He cares about every aspect of your life (1 Peter 5:7), it’s imperative that you make sure that He’s at the center of the business that you’re running by allowing the Spirit of God to establish you very firmly on the Word. So be the best and the most dynamic businessperson as you can be all for the glory of God, and see the awesome and deep pleasure of the Lord prosper in your hands.
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