Be a Christian First and an Entrepreneur Second to Glorify God in Your Business
As an entrepreneur, always remember that God is the ultimate provider of all things, equipping you with the skills, knowledge, and resources needed for success.
Help the poor , how?
Helping the poor isn't about how much you give, but about making a meaningful impact with what you have, whether in spirit, ability, emotions, or finances.
Hard work and Rest the reasons why
For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year, the land is to have a year of Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.
Leviticus 25:3-4
Wow, can you imagine what it would be like to take one year off every seven? It’s hard enough to take a yearly vacation, let alone a whole year. Heck, I know many people who are challenged taking one day a week off.
True Leadership comes from the Lord.
What can we learn from the leadership attributes of Moses when he led the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land?
A lot!
We must realize that Moses is leading slaves who were driven hard by their taskmasters, ruled by the whip, told what to do, how to do it, and had never been away from their neighbourhood for 400 hundred years. They did not know where they were going, how they were going to get there, how long it was going to take, and most importantly – how they are going to get their food and water!
God gave everyone unique talents
We were all given special skills and unique abilities when we were born. Some would call this talent. Talent is not a learned behaviour; talent is within all of us, sometimes it needs to be found or drawn out. You either have a talent or you don’t. You can improve on your knowledge and skill in a specific talent but not gain a talent if you don’t have it. But you do have one or more.
The Power of Clarity
So often we think that we explain things properly, concisely, and clearly but unfortunately the person(s) receiving the information or instructions don’t agree. Or worse yet, don’t realize that they don’t fully understand.
Pay what you owe
And never be beholden to another
We all know the story of Joseph the son of Jacob.
It shows us many things:
1. Be honest
2. Do what is right
3. Pay what you owe and never be beholden to another
Your First Refuge
Trust Me!
Wow, those are loaded words.
How often have you heard them?
How often have you been hurt by them?
When all we have is our human understanding and experience, how can we over-ride our cynical and inbred distrust of others, even if it is God?
Decide. Commit. Succeed
Your Year
I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.
Be inspired to do your best, even better than you think.
Delegate
One of the most difficult things to do when you have a business is to delegate your work. You cannot do it all. Even if you are a single proprietor and have no employees you must delegate.
Short story:
Moses was in the desert with the Israelites and every day he sat as judge from morning till night. Jethro his father in law saw this and told him that it was not good because he will wear himself out.
Keep your word, covenant, promise
You just got a flat tire! What now? Are you able to drive safely? Of course not. How do you feel when you make plans that are contingent on someone else doing something and they promise to do it but don’t live up to their promises? Your car doesn’t drive does it?
That is the same as when you give your word to someone and you don’t keep it. The project, activity, plan isn’t going to work the same as originally thought. What do we do, why does it happen, how do we change it?
The Law of Reciprocity
There is a fine line between giving a gift and a bribe. How do you distinguish between the two? The only way to determine the correct answer, we need to look at the intent. One of the easiest ways to look at it would be to ask,
“Would you give this to gift to a friend?”
The starting point of the law of reciprocity is to do things for others. Something as simple as opening in the door for someone or getting someone a cup of coffee is a very powerful technique that you can use to cause people to like you and to feel obligated to you.
Life is Not Always Fair
Remember the story about the rabbit and the tortoise? There was no way the tortoise should have won, but he did. The Rabbit cheated himself. Here the wisest man ever, wrote in effect that no matter what attributes we have there is always time and chance that can intervene. Does that mean we labour in vain, or that it doesn’t matter, fate will have its way? No, Solomon loved to say, “under the sun”, but God is King of all and everything is in His providence. We should not do things half-heartedly. We do our best, while at the same time, we ask the Lord to bless our efforts to accomplish His perfect will. As it is written in Romans 12:11, “Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, doing all things as unto Him.”
Trust in God
Running your small business is a spiritual journey as much as a road trip to business success. Along the road, you will be tested, stretched and stressed and these words from the bible will give you needed encouragement.
TRUST IS not a common element in the business arena. In fact, most, if not all business operations and activities, are executed on the premise that no one outside of the organization can be trusted.
Everything is negotiable
As businesspeople, we constantly negotiate.
Beyond traditional big-time mergers or acquisitions, we negotiate building leases, vendor contracts, strategic plans, employee hiring and performance evaluations, and so much more.
As believers in business, we are called to a higher level in our negotiations than many with whom we negotiate.
Listen to God’s Voice
It's an amazing and fulfilling thing to live life in line with God's design and calling on your life. But it can seem difficult and overwhelming to discover it. Here is my suggestion: Pay attention to who God made you to be. The Lord constantly speaks to us and gives us His direction. It’s never the Lord who is not speaking, but it’s us who are not hearing.
Win Win
Stephen Covey certainly recognized that in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Habit 4 simply acknowledges that how we think about conflict determines the solution. I confess this habit is one of my favorites because it gives me permission to think creatively about possible solutions. Specifically on how I can fashion a Win-Win situation.
Give thanks!
Feeling and expressing appreciation is good for us. Like any wise father, God wants us to learn to be thankful for all the gifts He has given us (James 1:17). It is in our best interest to be reminded that everything we have is a gift from Him. Without gratefulness, we become arrogant and self-centered. We begin to believe that we have achieved everything on our own. Thankfulness keeps our hearts in right relationship to the Giver of all good gifts.
Make a plan of action and work the plan.
God always has a plan; doesn’t it make sense that we emulate God’s success? Not only does he have a plan, but he has us helping to work it for Him sometimes. The key is that He has a plan, develops His thoughts, and then He works it. We can and should learn from Him.
Be Honest and Faithful
Honesty is truthfulness. An honest person has the habit of making accurate, trustworthy statements about life, self, others and God. An honest person represents himself just as he is and tells others the truth about themselves. Honesty is not “expressing everything that goes through your mind.” That’s transparency, and a person can be honest without being transparent. However, no one can be consistently honest without a commitment to the truth. Another definition is freedom from deceit or fraud. The third definition of honesty is integrity.
Family Second
If you want to have success in your business, you know you need to look to God first. There is no surprise in realizing that you need to look for your family second. Without their help, you will get nowhere fast.
The heavy lifting is done
God Has A Plan for You.
This is one of the most common things I hear;” I don’t know what my purpose is?”
The second one is;” I thought I was supposed to start a business, I prayed about it and told God what I was going to do, but it’s not working for me, why? I love what I do, I am good at what I do, but there is always more month than money. I work myself to the bone, but I never seem to get ahead.
Business and the Bible
I was asked recently or rather told: “Yes. I feel the Bible does not encourage any of us to get into business, in fact, I believe it warns us against it. I would show up for a discussion on that.” I posted that I would address that question at our next meeting, and I am not sure if the person attended but here are my thoughts on the topic.
Recently, Bill English, founder of Bible and Business, was being interviewed on Faith Radio and noted that all ministry – churches, colleges, para-church organizations and so forth – all of them depend on profitable businesses. In our system of laws and economies, none of them could survive without funding and all funding ultimately comes from profitable businesses.
FOLLOW US
