Perspectives from Scripture

The Scriptures reveal many relevant truths to those of us who are in business and working in a secular world. These Scriptures tell us how we ought to behave in light of who we are in Christ. For many in Christian circles the adage is to “be in the world but not of the world,” and finds its origins from the words of Christ as He prays for believers in John chapter 17. Yet even Christ understood that as children of God we must engage with the world in order to bring the message of hope, the Gospel, to the lost.

No matter how neat and clean of a person you may be, when you are hard at work you tend to get dirty. In fact, to walk away from a difficult job, or any job for that matter, unspotted is quite a feat. Just being in the world has its challenges, and because of the fallen nature of mankind, we live in a sinful world that impacts us directly and indirectly along the way.  These difficulties can present challenges to our faith and make us question whether God is present in our daily affairs, or if we are supposed to trudge through hard times on our own.

And so when we face difficulties and challenges we must trust that God is with us. This, of course, is substantiated by Scripture and we can trust that God is always faithful to meet our needs. In fact, we read in Matthew 6:33

 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

In context, this verse is dealing with worry. As a business owner or worker in any field there are often things that we may find worrisome. For example, you might be nearing pay day and find that you may not be able to meet your payroll budget. You may have more month than money sometimes, or there may not be enough work to substantiate your current labor. The list of possibilities goes on and on. Still, in every adversarial moment we find an opportunity to trust in the LORD for His provision.

Trust must be the rule of our lives when we are ordering our priorities. But trusting in the LORD and seeking His kingdom and His righteousness go beyond the check box list of things we ought to be doing. This command is expected of us in everything we do, but notice too that this is a command with promise. The promise here is a kind of if/then statement. If you seek first the Kingdom and if you seek first His righteousness, then all of these things (your needs) will be added to you.

Of course we could spend a lot of time debating the difference between wants and needs, but aren’t you thankful that God knows it all and discerns the difference for us?

So then, if we focus on righteous living and seeing the fulfillment of the Great Commission in all that we do, we can rest on the assurance that God is faithful to meet our specific and general needs. The fact is that physical well-being, success, and fortunes are not really priorities in the life of a believer, but they can be a result of righteous living by virtue of the law of sowing and reaping. Indeed a worker is worth his wages, and good hard work will find its reward in due season. Still, as believers, our goal of seeing His kingdom come is independent of anything else in this life. When we keep our nose to the grind and make Him our priority, we will inevitably work more diligently and find that our work becomes our mission field to a large degree. It is with this perspective in mind that we can commit to being godly examples to the world, showing others what living the Christian life entails, and make ourselves available to share the Gospel when appropriate to do so.

The bottom-line is that God knows what you need before you need it. Sometimes it may seem that He is a day late and a dollar short, but we must trust that His timing is absolutely perfect. For a large majority of the population of the world, meeting our financial needs tend to present the most worry, but God’s promises not only cover our financial needs, but every other aspect of the life of the believer as well. For example, we don’t have to worry about our health. We don’t have to worry about our relationships. We don’t have to worry about what we are going to wear or what we are going to eat. As believers we don’t have to worry about a thing as worrying doesn’t do anything for us. In fact, worry can be detrimental to your health and well-being.

When you are faced with things that might cause you to worry, ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I seeking His kingdom?
• Am I seeking His righteousness?
• Have I worked diligently and faithfully to do all I can do in His strength?

If you can answer “yes” to these questions then trust that LORD will be faithful to His WORD and His promises. While the outcomes may not be what you expect, His provision is infinitely more valuable to us and our worldly needs than we might ever expect.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]