Stuff happens in life and business. We all have our ups and downs and our various seasons. When things are really bad we hear quite often from well-meaning people, “you just have to trust God”.
I believe that. I have said it.
Is “Trust God” Just a Cliche?
But, when you are the one in the middle of a crisis, it seems to ring hollow. It seems like a nice thing to say. Like “I’ll pray for you”. Yet, how many people follow up on this promise to pray.
I don’t want to be a skeptic here. I do believe that prayer makes all the difference in the world and ultimately the answer to peace on earth is in the concept of trusting in God. I have focused on truly connecting with God, and praying and trusting, and seen “all the difference in the world”.
I have also drifted through the motions, and made the core connectors to a relationship with God, into a shallow, weak string of attachment.
God Is Consistent, We Fluctuate
The difference between the two ends of the spectrum is in us, not God. He is always consistent. We, however, move back and forth like a pendulum.
Trusting in God is a core biblical concept, shared with us copiously in the Psalms:
Psalm 9:10
Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.
Psalm 13:5
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
Psalm 20:7
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
Psalm 22:4
In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.
Psalm 22:9
Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
The Psalms remind us and convict us of the Lord’s trustworthiness and faithfulness. So, if we believed that God is truly trustworthy, wouldn’t that reduce our worry and stress significantly.
If We Truly Trusted God…
And as Christian business owners what would it look like if we truly trusted God.
For me, I would:
- Build my business on a foundation of Christian values because I would know in my heart that God’s ways are the only way to live in every aspect of our business. This means we pay our taxes, we treat our vendors with respect, we return calls, we try not to ever sue anyone, we don’t cut corners, and so on and so on.
- Pray about everything in my business, not just the crisis or the areas I don’t feel in control. This one is hard for me because if I feel confident I tend to forget to go to God first. However, he wants us to be totally dependent on Him. We should lift all aspects of our business up to Him for wisdom and discernment at a minimum.
- When things go wrong, again I would go to the Lord before I act or react. I would try to listen for His wisdom and advice. But, I guess, most importantly I would ask Him to help me carry the burden. When we carry our own burden, many times, our heavy hearts and minds are manifested into poor decisions, inconsistent behavior, and sometimes just being mean or uncaring to people we do care about.
The word trust shows up almost 100 times in the bible in my word search at www.biblegateway.com. The concept of trust even more!
In the new testament we see the need to trust God with everything, even our worldly issues i.e. wealth, the church, and our personal joy and peace.
Luke 16:11
So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
Acts 14:23
Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Although intellectually, we all get that we are supposed to trust God in everything, in reality, I think we can all reflect and find many areas that we maintain control.
I know I can!
Give Up Control
I want to challenge you in your business and life to take an inventory. In what areas do you still maintain full control? Where do you take it for granted that you have this one, and don’t go to God? Are there areas of life you feel aren’t important to God? Things that He would rather we just take care of ourselves.
Take the inventory. Re-read the scriptures above (or pick your own). And re-commit to trusting God in everything. Specifically give Him the areas you have kept to yourself based on your inventory.
Be purposeful about going to the Lord with everything and see the difference in your joy and peace over time.
You’ve hit on a strong point here. So often, we think we have to do things our way – bend the truth to our customers, cut corners with our taxes, look for legal but unethical loopholes… It really comes down to the fact that we don’t trust God.
Loren, I agree and it is human nature for us to forget that it is all God’s anyway. If it comes from our own work/labor we feel it is ours. I have to remind myself of that often – it’s all God’s!
We say we trust God, but then in a hundred different ways we dont live it out. We do our own thing. We wrestle for what we want. We dismiss the divine in the small things, and thus by doing so, remove him out of the equation for the big things
David, I think our sub-conscious is hard wired to take control. Sometimes we may not even realize it. I think for me I have had to consciously reflect on what am I trying to control in my life to even expose it. Then it’s easier to give it over to God. I know I should and I believe it makes all of the difference in the world….but, if I don’t identify what I am holding on to, I lose out on the help!
I love this site and the insight it provides on practical matters as well as connection to others