By Carey Green
LIVE your faith, BUILD your business, CHANGE your world. Simply put, that's what LBC is all about. My name is Carey Green and you could call me a "Business Pastor," I guess. I've served local churc
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There is a phrase that we hear in the church fairly that is something I fear we say without knowing what it really means - or how to apply it rightly: claiming God's promises.
Okay so someone says, “I'm claiming the promises of God” for this, or this or this…
In this episode of the podcast I ask the questions, “What does that really MEAN - and is it OK to do when it comes to business endeavors?
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It’s important that we have our thinking straight when it comes to “claiming the promises of God.” Anyone - you or I - can go off in all kinds of directions, claiming that we are taking one of the many promises of God in scripture and actually be on the wrong track - both in our thinking and in our behavior.
It’s easy to do. So how do we avoid that mistake?
I've seen this practice done a couple of different ways throughout the twenty years I was a pastor and just in my life as a believer. I’ve seen it happen in the lives of people I rub shoulders with and in my own life at times. And what I’ve learned is that there is a right way and a wrong way to do this.
From what I've learned of scripture and through what I have seen people put into practice, let me give you a couple of scenarios.
Say you have somebody who is struggling to put food on the table. They don't have a job. They are not actively looking for a job. But they are praying and hoping that something is going to come through for them and they say things like, “I am claiming the promises of God... that He will never let the righteous be forsaken.” (Psalm 37:25)
I think it's probably pretty obvious - at least I hope it is - that it's not really a very wise or proper way to “claim the promises of God.”
God's promises are not isolated.
When God makes a promise to the righteous, He's making a promise to a person who has certain characteristics, certain things true about them. That's what He means when He uses the word “righteous” to refer to them.
And to be clear - all of the righteousness any of us have is righteousness that comes to us through Christ - and it includes having Christ Himself in us to strengthen us and fill us with wisdom. He motivates us to go and do what we need to do in order to be a part of God's promises coming true.
We are often the means God uses to fulfill His promises to us.
So we can't just “claim promises of God” if we are unwilling to step into the situation by faith, trusting God is going to help us, and actually put our faith into action.
I think that's a wrong way to apply this idea of claiming God's promises.
What would the right way to claim God’s promises, look like? That’s what the rest of this episode is about.
Psalm 37:4 is and example of rightly claiming the promises of GodIn scripture there are some keystone kind of verses - verses that lots of other theology or lots of other beliefs rest upon. They are foundational because they communicate foundational concepts or truths that support everything else.
One of those statements I believe is often overlooked in this regard and is easily misapplied in this kind of thing is Psalm chapter 37, verse number 4.
It says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
As we stop and think about that, it could be taken one of two ways. It could mean: If you delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you everything you want. And so the desires of your heart is being defined as everything you want.
I don't think that's what the verses is saying.
The sentence is an if/then statement - so the last part of it (the desires of your heart part) is contingent on the first part. In order for us to understand the verse we have to understand what that first part really means.
Okay - so, “Delight yourself in the Lord” - that's a statement about relationship. It's a statement about our affections being directed toward God intentionally.
You see, we have a responsibility as followers of Jesus Christ to orient our minds, to orient our hearts, toward God Himself as our highest treasure. That's what worship really is, that's what being a Christ follower is literally about.
It's about being so consumed with who our God is, who our Savior Jesus Christ is, that we delight in Him like we would delight in our spouse, or like we delight in our children, like we would delight in some favorite hobby or favorite activity that we have.
You see, the idea of delighting in God is really the key part of this verse. When that is in place - THEN we have a context in which we can understand the next part of the verse.
It says, “Delight yourself in the Lord… and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
After understanding the conditional nature of the statement, what I think it means is this: As you delight in God, in who He is and what He's about in history and in in this world and in this universe - then He gives you the desires your heart is intended to have.
So He is fashioning your desires. He's creating them for you - and it flows out of the fact that your perspective and your focus is correct. You are looking at the God of history, the One who holds history in His hand and who is bringing about all things according to the counsel of His will. So it only makes sense that the desires that begin to well up inside of you will be even more on track with what He wants because your are staying aligned with Him on a personal level.
Once we have that foundation in place, we can get back to the question at hand: Is it appropriate to claim the promises of God in relation to business?
Listen to this episode to hear a broader explanation of why I think it is EXACTLY appropriate given what we’ve just uncovered.
Business goals in view of the promises of God: It’s not an exact scienceIs it appropriate to “claim the promises of God” in business endeavors?
Well, if my practice of claiming the promises of God is flowing out of that deep, passionate, Christ-honoring, Christ-seeking relationship that is described in the first part of Psalm 37:4, then I would expect that I will start having desires, goals, and ambitions that are flowing out of that.
It would make sense that as I come across passages of scripture that speak to the kinds of things I’m dealing with in business - either in specific or general ways - I have more cause to take those as promises as applications to my situation.
Here’s why… as I'm am walking close to God and as I’m delighting myself in the Lord, I begin to have a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit that tells me whether or not I am able to take that particular promise, or that particular passage of scripture as a direct application to my situation.
Remember this is about relationship with God - and no relationship is an exact science - it’s an issue of experience and faith. It’s how on a very personal, individual level, we relate with the God of the universe.
In my thinking, it only follows that as we are growing tight with Him, He reveals to us where we should be headed - and part of that will be Him revealing things He has said in His word that can give us confidence as we head in those directions.
So can you claim the promises of God in relation to your business IF you are doing your diligent best to delight in the Lord… if you are carrying out the practical, consistent, daily things that nurture and grow your relationship with Him in an authentic, genuine, passionate way.
Then you can be more confident that the promises of God you come across in scripture will…
Then the Holy Spirit - who is the author of that scripture - may actually tap you on the shoulder or tug at your heart and say to you in that inaudible, intangible, still, small voice kind of way, “This is for you. I want you to pursue this. It’s what I want for you and what I've placed on your heart.”
That's my perspective what it means to claim a promise of God… but there’s an application side of this.
What do you actually DO once you have a promise that you believe you can legitimately claim? Keep listening/reading.
How will the action I take in business be different if I BELIEVE God is really working alongside me and within me?The only way I know to effectively describe this step in the process is to tell you a bit of my story - because it’s the only story I have. ;)
And I don’t tell it to brag or boast - but to illustrate what God is doing or has done in my journey.
My passion, my desire, my purpose in the business God has given me is to build a business that fuels more than just my lifestyle. Some of the ways that has manifested itself is in…
All of that is just background to say this… What does promise-claiming faith look like?
When I’ve done the hard work of pursuing God in relationship - entirely apart from my business endeavors at first - my confidence in my ability to hear Him grows and I begin to have a gut-level belief that God is using the business to do those kinds of things that I just described to you.
It's a deep, firm conviction I have that I believe God is going to flourish the business because it's what He's placed on my heart as I've walked close to Him (do you see the connection with the first part of this episode?)
I begin to see situations in the scriptures where God flourishes the work of the righteous - like He did in Daniel's life, or in Joseph's life - and I start thinking about my business and the hard work that goes into creating a business.
Marketing. Sales. Establishing a good service for clients. Working with a team. It's all very hard work.
And I had this thought a few months ago: If God is working alongside me as I believe He is, what kind of action should I be taking in light of that belief?
The conclusion I came to? I would be going for it. I would be excited.
Because I believe God has promised me He's going to flourish this business. I believe the work of my hands is going to prosper. I believe that what I'm doing is going to succeed because it has a deeper purpose behind it, that the God who created the universe is adding His blessing to it, that He’s bringing just the right people to my team and to my client roster.
So I should be praying as a market that God will guide me to exactly the right clients who will flourish this business and in turn we will help to flourish what they are doing. I should act with boldness and with confidence in those conversations and interactions with prospective clients.
That's not always easy. It's not always comfortable. It's not always natural. Yet, that's what faith looks like when you really are claiming a promise of God that you are convinced He has given to you.
You act with boldness. You act with faith. You act with confidence - not because you are anything… you see, I don't think I'm the greatest businessman.
I'm really not a very good salesperson and I'm definitely not the best marketer out there.
But here's where my faith lies: I believe my God is at work in this business and He has made a promise that He intends to keep. My role is like a little kid at Christmas: I'm just excited to see what He's going to do. I want to be a part of it. So I'm gonna to get involved. I want to do the things that bring it about and then I’ll be encouraged that my faith in God is actually on track, that I'm hearing from Him, that I'm pursuing the things that matter, the things He's placed on my heart.
This business is not about me. It's about Him. It's about His glory and purpose that He has established.
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It was the summer of 1980. I was 13 years old.
And I was the hungriest I'd ever been in my life.
I was in the middle of my "ordeal," an initiation exercise to gain entrance into a special group within the boy scouts known as the "Order of the Arrow."
There was a group of 25 of us who were invited to participate. It was an honor and I was glad to be there.
But it was difficult for a 13 year-old because we had to:
Weird? Maybe. Consider it an early testosterone-laden initiation.
But you can see why I was so hungry.
Staying hungry impacted my thinkingOf course, I was nowhere near as hungry as many people in the world are every day, but for a teenager who'd never missed a meal in his life, it felt like I was starving.
Though I was plenty busy, it only took about 12 hours of not eating for my thoughts to be on one thing only - food.
I wanted to eat. Badly.
I couldn't sleep because my growling stomach kept me awake.
I was consumed with the thought of consuming something, anything, to satisfy the gnawing in my belly.
And to make matters worse, the light at the end of the dark hunger-tunnel was that we were promised that if we made it to the end, we'd be given a lavish banquet.
That focused my thoughts on food even more.
Staying hungry as an adult
When I hit adulthood I began to hear the phrase "stay hungry" in a variety of circles.
Because of my boy scout "ordeal" I had a pretty good idea of what was meant by it.
Hunger drives you. Hunger keeps you focused (on the thought of food). Hunger won't let you rest.
So when I heard sports figures or business gurus say that success requires that you "stay hungry," I knew exactly what they were getting at.
They meant that you had to set a goal and keep it before you at all times.
You had to desire something, one thing, more than you'd ever desired anything before.
They meant you had to become obsessed with that one thing.
How should a Christian business person stay hungry?All of that is great advice... if you are your own man or woman.
If you call the shots in your life.
If you don't answer to anyone. Ever.
But those are not descriptions that fit a Christian.
[tweetthis]We have a LORD (Jesus). He's made claims on our lives. Yet, He still wants us to "stay hungry."[/tweetthis]
How?
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. - Matthew 6:5
It doesn't really matter what your lot in life is (business, homemaking, trench digging, plumbing, etc.), you have the same calling as every other Christ-follower.
You are to stay hungry - for righteousness.
Nothing can take the place of that desire. Nothing should outshadow it.
It's difficult to be THAT kind of hungry in businessbecause there are so many other things to be hungry for... so many other things that vie for that place of obsessive attention:
and the list goes on.
So what do you do?
It's not easy, but it begins at the beginning of every, single day.
Getting hungry in the morningYour morning is vital to your day.
Even non-Christ-following people know this to be true. (See this post from Lifehacker called, "Do you have a morning ritual?" and this one, "5 morning rituals" from Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Whether you've ever taken to a morning "quiet time" or "daily devotional" is not the point. The point is that morning is the time you've got to set your mind and heart for the day ahead.
In the context of what we're talking about, the morning is when you've got to stoke your hunger - for righteousness.
If you don't do it then, I can guarantee you the competing options that rise up through the busy business day will squelch it altogether.
[tweetthis]You've got to set aside some time at the beginning of every day to get your head and heart right...[/tweetthis]
...to put yourself in a place where God is able to create the hunger in you that you desperately need.
I'd suggest you create some sort of regular, methodical routine that you follow consistently.
For me, it's my "Morning Mindset Reset" which you can read about at this linked post.
Whatever it is that you do, you've GOT to do something. If you don't you'll become hungry for other things.
You will. Believe me.
I've seen it too many times in my life and in the lives of those I've coached or counseled.
Staying hungry throughout the dayMorning is good. But it's not enough.
[tweetthis]Morning can't be your sole time of spiritual hunger. You've got to carry it with you throughout the day.[/tweetthis]
This is where it has to get practical. You've got to resort to small, simple things to remind you to say a quick prayer, open the scriptures for a quick bite of spiritual food, or take a deep breath as you rely once again on the Spirit of God.
Here are some suggestions:
You get the idea. The main point is that YOU have got to do something to remind yourself to be hungry for righteousness.
Please don't take this lightly. You won't like the results that come from being hungry for other things.
Everything else you hunger for will turn to sand in your mouth and sourness in your belly.
The result of staying hungry for righteousnessThe scripture I quoted earlier is pretty clear. If we hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus promises...
they shall be satisfied.
The clear implication is that we'll be satisfied with what we hunger for, RIGHTEOUSNESS.
That's a great deal. One I want in on every, single day.
It's my prayer that you do too. (Yes, I am really praying for you as I write this.)
I appreciate you taking the time to listen to this short update - the LORD has been doing significant things in my life and heart recently and I wanted to let you know how those movements of the Spirit are impacting with I've been called to do with Live Build Change.
Contact me at https://www.LiveBuildChange.com/contact
You know somebody once told me, “Never make decisions when you're under the cloud - wait until the sun comes out. “
And that is great advice. Get some space away from the situation.
Let me tell you about the time I most felt like quitting my business...
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When I feel like giving up on my business… OUTLINEI think it was about a year and a half into my business, Podcast Fast Track that some events happened all kind of right in a row that made me want to quit. I was discouraged, I was down, there were things that made me doubt myself and my abilities - and whether or not should have started this crazy entrepreneurial journey in the first place.
In particular the thing that made me want to quit was that I had a client who canceled his subscription to our podcast production and show notes service. Then another one. Then another one. Three customers in a row who bailed out.just when I thought I'd been doing a really good job for them.
To be honest I saw the first one coming.
The businesses had been growing pretty rapidly and I was scrambling to keep up with the workload. I was trying to create systems so that I could bring others on to help me out - I was doing all of that at the same time.
It was during that time frame I'd made a handful full of mistakes on that particular client’s work. I made the mistakes, not my team, me.
It's strange how that happens - all of the mistakes happening on one client's account. I mean if they'd been spread out over two or three client, I don’t think I would have lost any of them. But that's how it all started, that's how I began wondering if I should quit my business.
Then when the second client cancelled her subscription, and the third one just on the heels of that, you can imagine my state of mind. I mean if you've been there before you're asking all kinds of questions…
And sometimes the worst case scenario you hear in your own mind… “This just isn't going to work.”
What should you do when you hit that point?
And if you haven't hit that point yet and you are starting a business, I’m pretty certain you will come to everyone.
So I want to answer the question here, “What do you do when you want to quit your business?” The first thing I would say is you need to get some space from the issue.I learned the hard way that I don't make good decisions or good assessments when I'm in the pit of despair. You know I had to get some space, to get away from the situation for a little while so that I could look at it unemotionally even eventually, dispassionately.
Because I want to see what's really happened, not what I feel has happened. When I was able to do that in the situation I told you about here's is what I was able to see...
Number one, the first client’s issues were entirely my fault.
I had made mistakes.
He lost trust in me - and trust is the most valuable thing that I can give to a client so that was completely understandable. That he said, “No thanks, we're gonna to handle this another way” is completely understandable.
The second client was reorganizing his business and decided the podcasting didn't fit into his plans. Okay, that kind of thing happens in any type of business there's nothing I can do about that one.
The third client was in the middle of some heavy life issues. There were two deaths in his family within one month. It makes total sense that they were off-loading all the non-priority things.
Again, there’s nothing I can do about that.
You know somebody once told me never make decisions when you're under the cloud. Wait until the sun comes out.
That is great advice. I'm am glad I thought clearly enough to do that in this situation, and I highly recommend it for you too.
Get some space away from the situation.
Secondly, don't be afraid of the possibility that it could be quitting time.There's always the possibility that the LORD is using a difficult or discouraging circumstance to redirect you. I'm learning not to be afraid of that possibility - after all, maybe I'm not cut out to be an entrepreneur or a business owner. Perhaps it's something that I was induced into and excited about but it really doesn't fit me. Maybe I made a mistake in my initial decision to take on something like this.
If I'm going to live a humble life I've got to be open to those as possibilities.
And you know in the end, if God shows me that I shouldn't be pursuing a certain course of action or a business then that's a good thing, isn't it? Even if I don't think it is at the time, even if I feel like a failure at the time.
There's actually something very admirable about noticing you've made a misstep and then correcting course. And we can always rest assured God’s got our best in mind.
So in the situation I told you about I spent some time in prayer. And I sought the counsel of spiritually wise people - my wife among them. People that I respect. I did that so that I could determine if the discouragement was a course correction that I needed to heed - like quitting the business - or if it was nothing more than an obstacle or speed bump that I could learn from and overcome.
Prayers for wisdom work. God promises that they do.
So don't be afraid of the possibility that it actually could be quitting time you got to assess.
The third thing - you should go into to the learning mode.I mean if I get through steps one and two and I feel I should remain where I'm at, you know pursuing the business, then it's time for me to assess what I did to contribute to the problems that occurred.
I already mentioned that I'd made mistakes on the first customer’s service. Three mistakes in close succession for that customer, so what do I do with that?
Well, I need to own it.
There's is nothing wrong in admitting that I made a mistake. In fact, you can't move forward until you DO admit that you made mistakes.
So I had to own those mistakes inwardly and outwardly. I contacted the client, I admitted the mistakes clearly and openly, and I apologized. I told them the steps I was taking to correct the problem and I asked if there was any way I could continue to provide the service they originally hired me for.
In that situation, you know the story - they said “No thanks.” But I did what was right by owning my mistake.
Another thing you need to do when you go into a learning mode is you need to consider God's role in the issue.
The way that I look at that situation is that God's hand was clearly in it. I mean…
But He didn't.
And I've got to trust that God knows what He's doing in my business, that He's got a great purpose in what is happened. After all, it's His business, not mine. I’ve got to learn to rest in Him. Even in a disappointment like that.
When you're in learning mode you also need to pinpoint how all the mistakes happened and tweak your procedures and your systems to avoid the same mistakes in the future.
In business, making the same mistake repeatedly is inexcusable.
It really is - it's inexcusable.
Because as a service provider or product supplier you have committed yourself to deliver a certain amount of value. If you make a mistake - wonderful - we are human and we make mistakes. But we learn from those mistakes too - and part of what we learn is how to adjust the way we are delivering that good or that service so that the mistake doesn't happen again.
You see I'm not being a good manager or a good steward of the business God has given me if I allow all those mistakes to happen over and over. So we make adjustments to the way that I do things. That's my systems. That’s my procedures. I change things, I make checklists, I do things to avoid the same errors happening repeatedly.
If needed, I make sure those adjustments are communicated to my entire team so that everyone knows how to avoid that potential problem.
In the situation I've described I was open with my team about my mistakes so that they could all learn from them. And that's hard to do as a business owner but you know your team will respect you more for it. Not only does that model the kind of behavior that you want to see in your team, it also builds trust in you as a leader, even though you made a mistake.
The fourth thing that you need to do when you experience a business failure or you're tempted to quit is to revisit visit your purposes for being in business in the first place.It’s time to refocus.
What I did was I spent some time reminding myself why I'm doing this thing called business.
Here's my quick bullet point list that I went through…
For example, it wasn’t long ago that our pastor had forgotten that he was gonna to be gone in two weeks on a Sunday. He texted me and asked me if I could fill in and do the preaching that week.
That was a great opportunity - and it was a great freedom to be able to say “Yes” because I have a business that allows me to structure my life in such a way that I could put in the extra time to do a quality sermon for the church family. That is vitally important to me.
Another thing that I had to remind myself was that I'm am gleaning experience from my business that can help others. Through this podcast, through my blog, through my life coaching business and other things, I can pass along the experiences that I'm learning in business - and they're not all going to be pretty and wrapped up neatly with a bow from the LORD. Sometimes those lessons come through the hard mistakes we make.
I also have to remember that once upon a time I was pumped up about this thing that I call my business. And I have to remind myself that deep down, even though there's been a discouraging season, I still AM encouraged and pumped up about it.
The last thing that I had to do when I was tempted to the quit was this: I had to get to work.For me it's vital that I not sit in the discouragement or any inaction the discouragement spawns. I can't do that for very long once I'm convinced that I'm still on the right track. I've got to get moving again.
I truly think this is a vital - that you get moving again quickly.
The doubt and the fear and the insecurity can’t be allowed to creep into your soul further. If it did, it would be devastating the second time around.
So in my case, the week after I got the last of those client cancellations, I got busy.
In other words, I just got busy.
But that brings us to another great question - “What if you don't feel like getting busy? What if it's extremely hard to get past that discouragement. What if you just feel like you can't?
First of all, pray. Ask God for the strength and the motivation that you need.
Secondly, believe that He'll answer your prayer. Don't be guilty of what we do so often - we pray something and then we step away and continue to worry and fret about the thing we just prayed about.
If you're asking God to give you the strength that you need to get moving again, believe me, He's is going to answer that prayer.
So begin acting the on that belief. In other words get busy.
It’s really a mindset battle when you want to give up on your business.These discouraging times really are a mindset battle.
Did you recognize that from what I described in my situation? Whether you actually quit your business or not, you have to win the battle over discouragement.
As a believer in Christ you have to learn to overcome those down feelings and thoughts that threaten you, because they will derail you - they will suck faith out of you if you let them.
And depending on your unique past, the battle may be harder for you than it is for other people.
But that doesn't matter. Your obstacles are your obstacles.
It's still a battle that you have to fight and win.
It's a battle that's vital because it has to do with how you think. Perhaps you've heard me talk about this before, but how you think will dictate the course of your life. So you have got to win the battle against discouragement.
Successfully fight one battle after another after another and you will begin to build the spiritual and emotional muscle you need to get past the wrong beliefs and feelings that tend to hold you back not just in business, but in life.
It's a battle where you cannot give up.
You cannot quit.
Even if you do decide it's time to throw in the towel on something like a business.
My encouragement to you is this:
Grab your Bible right now if you can and fill yourself up with truth. Do it daily if you have to - and most of us do.
If you are not subscribed to the Morning Mindset edition of this podcast - that's what the Morning Mindset is about.
It's a daily four and a half to five minute long audio, encouraging you and me with truth from the Bible to fill us up. You can find the Morning Mindset set here.
And I want you to keep it at that daily practice until you see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Keep at it. Don't give up. Don't stop even when you DO see the light at the end of tunnel.
The LORD will be there to meet you, to fill you, and to fill you up every day as you meet Him.
So I want you to consider a few questions…Join the LBC Community On Facebook
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Website: www.LiveBuildChange.com
Facebook Community: www.LiveBuildChange.com/FB
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Website: www.LiveBuildChange.com
Facebook Community: www.LiveBuildChange.com/FB
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