There are many moments when business can induce stress. Between employees, customers, suppliers, sales, and cash flow, business offers many opportunities to freak out. It’s in challenging situations that we have the opportunity to allow business to deepen our trust in God.
During seasons of adversity my natural reflex is to pick up the reigns, double down, and work harder. While there is nothing wrong with hard work and focus, I find that the heart behind my work is filled with anxiety. Trust in God has been replaced with self effort.
I don’t know about you, but over the years it has been hard for me to trust God with my business. I trust God with my eternal salvation. I trust Him with my marriage and family. But when it comes to business, it feels like it is up to me. This feels especially true when adversity happens.
King David was a man that was familiar with adversity. While he enjoyed many days of success, he endured other seasons where things did not come easy.
It was during one of these frustrating seasons that David wrote Psalm 37:5.
Trust also in Him and He will do it.
As a business owner it can feel like everything is on your shoulders.
Imagine with me if instead of owning your business your business was actually owned by the most successful business person in the world. This person had the financial resources of Warren Buffet, the innovative mind of Henry Ford, and the leadership skills of Winston Churchill. This business owner had a unbroken track record of incredible success. It was like everything he touched turned to gold.
Imagine that this incredible business owner lived in a foreign country and assigned you as his steward to lead the business. You got to run this business and share in the success and you could call him for advice or to tap extra resources whenever you needed to.
Imagine if this business guru was the kindest person you had ever met. He loved you and you knew it. He treated you like one of his children. Rather than being demanding, he had dreams for you. He saw your true heart and knew your deepest desires.
I imagine that in this situation, the things that stress me out in my business right now wouldn’t seem like big issues if I were to steward for this incredible person. It would be easy to trust.
You literally have this opportunity when you surrender your business to God. You are saying, “I give this business to You, God and to the purposes of Your Kingdom.” In this, you become a steward rather than holding on tightly as an owner.
David says when we commit our way to the LORD we can trust Him. Similarly, when we commit our businesses to God we can trust Him as He assumes the role of owner and we assume the role of a steward.
As a steward of a business that has been surrendered to God, you are working for a business that is owned by the wisest, kindest, and most strategic person in the universe.
In this place of surrender, it becomes possible and even logical for you to trust God as you realize that this is actually not all up to you.
I like to define trust as, “The absence of freaking out.” I know I’m trusting God if my heart is steady. When I sense that I’m heading to a place of anxiety, I see this as a dashboard light and do my best to turn my heart back to the Father.
The next verse of the Psalm says, “Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him.” (Psalm 37:7) There is an internal place of rest that is available to our hearts.
Jesus invites all who are weary and heavy-laden to come to Him for rest. If He were speaking to a group of entrepreneurs, I think He might have said: “Come to me all you who are frustrated with cash flow, worried about payroll, and lost for what to do about an employee problem. Take the role of a steward. Trust Me with this and I will give you rest.”
We can come to Jesus with the issues in our business. As we surrender our business to Him, we can also surrender the issues related to the business.
Not only is there a place of rest, there is a posture of rest. This is a lifestyle of trusting in God. Based on our identity as beloved sons and daughters of God and our role as stewards of His Kingdom we are able to know we’re going to be OK.
The posture of rest comes from a humble heart that says, “Not all of this is up to me. I trust that God has me and the business that I steward.”
If the pressures of business have you struggling with anxiety a good question to ask might be, “Have I surrendered my business to God?” If so, you can rest in your role as a steward of His business. If not, you can surrender your business right now and begin doing better business from a place of rest and trust.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Revenue Growth Engine. To scale your impact you need to scale your business. To do this, you need a powerful Revenue Growth Engine. Listeners to Surrendered Business can get a free copy of the Revenue Growth Engine audiobook at www.revenuegrowthengine.com/book.
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