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Chapter 7
A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
What Is Success?
JUST WHAT IS SUCCESS? How is it to be achieved? Usually the first component of success that comes to mind is the financial. But another *inecessary component is diligence. “Lazy hands make a man poor, butnn iligent hands bring wealth” (PROVERBS 10:4). ”All hard work brings a prtfit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (PROVERBS 14:23).
”Success” in the world is related to money, power, and position. But it’s meaning is not really different from what it has always been. Although some may appear to be highly successful by the world’s standards, by God’s standards they are considered failures. The problem is not that they have been lots of ”things.” In fact, God promises His people everything that unbelievers have. ”For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (MATTHEW 6:32-33).
The problem is the desire for things that causes the grief, not the material possessions themselves. Poverty is not a reasonable alternative to riches. Some Christians have concluded that if riches are not normal, then poverty must be. God said there would always be poor people in the land, but He never indicated they would be the most spiritual of people. The norm taught in God’s Word is described as either “enough” or “abundance,” for those who believe and follow Him: ”I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread” (PSALMS 37:25).
Some Christians believe that it is giving up something that makes them spiritual. Although they know they have not ”earned” their salvation, they somehow believe they must ”earn” God’s acceptance. Paul laid this deception to rest once and for all in his letter to the Corinthians. ”If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not given love, I gain nothing” (I CORINTHIANS 13:3). So, God is not looking for martyrs, but for believers. God’s plan may not always provide ”the best” or ”the most,” but it is always ”enough.”
How To Be A Success
In order to be a ”success” from a biblical perspective, certain prerequisites must be met:
Surrender — Every ”successful” servant of the Lord who was entrusted with material and spiritual rewards first demonstrated an acceptance of God’s LORDSHIP. ”Why do you call me, ’Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (LUKE 6:46).
Obedience — An unwavering dedication to God’s way is the mark of a true steward. ”Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else” (11 CORINTHIANS 9:13).i
Persistence — Nothing and no one can shake a true believer from doing God’s will once it is understood. The evidence of this can be observed in the lives of every servant used by God: ”Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish” (ESTHER 4:16); ”Then Paul answered, ‘Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Ierusalemfor the name if the Lord Iesus’” (ACTS 21:13).
Sadly, some Christians become entrapped by worldly ”success.” They have drive and ambition but because they fail to recognize God’s will for them, they fall prey to the world’s standards. God will reveal His plan to those who diligently seek Him. ”Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and He will make your paths straight” (PROVERBS 35-6).
The Folly Of Laziness
Solomon was a hard worker and observed the folly of laziness. For him wisdom lay in working hard. It was the secret of success in every area of life, from family, to government, to business. On the other hand, he saw laziness as folly leading to failure. Hard work then is profitable for sustenance, wealth, and life itself; it develops leadership and a good reputation and must take priority over comfort and leisure. Hunger is often a good incentive for hard work, but vain overwork is unwise because it wastes valuable energy on fleeting fancies. Laziness undermines trust and is a sign of ignorance. A lazy person invents excuses for failure and wastes worthy resources. Laziness leads its practitioners into trouble (poverty, forced labor, self-neglect, and possibly even self-destruction). Laziness becomes a scourge, a tragedy, a travesty upon human dignity. It is one of the saddest things that can come to the human heart.
Have you ever noticed how physical activity (or inactivity) affects our spiritual lives? For example, lazy people are the last ones to know they are lazy, and if you tell them, they don’t believe it! Perhaps that’s the reason God is so out-spoken about laziness in the book of Proverbs. It’s His desire that we discover our laziness before it’s too late to avoid the consequences.
”Take a lesson from the ants, you lazy fellow. Learn from their ways and be wise! For though they have no king to make them work, yet they labor hard1 (all summer, gathering food for the winter. But you — all you do is sleep. When will you wake up? ‘Let me sleep a little longer! ’ Sure, just a little more! And as you sleep, poverty creeps upon you like a robber and destroys you; want attacks you in full armor” (PROVERBS 6:26-11).
Let’s look honestly at it as God’s Word pictures it. The lazy person is first of all someone who seldom initiates anything himself. ”But you — all you do is sleep. When will you wake up?” (PROVERBS 6:9). Lazy people answer, ”Let me sleep a little longer! ” (PROVERBS 6:10). They always need someone to prod them along.
A lazy person usually does not become lazy by one great, sudden rebellion. Laziness comes slowly. One sinks into laziness little by little. A little moment here, a little time there, a little detail that is allowed to go by the wayside. All contribute to the person’s becoming a sluggard. Slothfulness develops slowly. ”A lazy man won’t even dress the game he gets while hunting, but the diligent man makes good use of everything he finds” (PROVERBS 2:27). He goes hunting but never finds his dresses his game. He does not finish what he starts, preferring to let someone else do it for him. ”Some men are so lazy they won’t even feed themselves! ” (PROVERBS 19:24). Because he is a quitter and loves being waited on, ”a lazy man is brother to the saboteur” (Proverbs 18:9). If you hire such a person, you are the loser, for he wastes his time and energy, and yours. He is a danger to his employer and his fellow employees.
How To Know If You Are In Or Out Of God’s Will
If you would be a servant of Jesus Christ, you should not set the criteria for what you will do or where you will go. Availability to God’s call is key. God makes us broken bread and poured-out wine to please Himself. To be “separated unto the gospel” means to hear the call of God; and once someone begins to hear that call, then the agony of decision begins. All ambition for self is nipped in the bud, every selfish desire of life quenched, every concern for self completely extinguished and blotted out. Only one thing takes precedence, being ”separated unto the Gospel.” Woe to the person who tries to step out in any other direction once that call has come. God wants to know if you care about proclaiming His Gospel; to see whether His call grips you. Just beware of competitors when God does grip you.
Believers need to learn the secret of the ”burning heart.” When Christ first appears to you, fires are kindled and you have wonderful visions. Excitement flows through you because you believe you finally understand who you are to be and how you are to act. But you need to learn to keep the secret of the ”burning heart” which is to be prepared to go through anything. Dull, plain, dreary, ordinary days, with commonplace duties and people, often kill the ”burning heart” unless you learn the secret of abiding in Him. So, when God gives a vision, make it a point to transact business in that context no matter what the cost.
The golden rule for spiritual understanding is related not to intellect, but to obedience. If people want scientific knowledge, their guide is intellectual curiosity; but if they want insight into what Jesus Christ teaches they can get thisonly by obedience. Intellectual darkness goes with ignorance; but spiritual darkness results from deciding not to obey.
You can’t ever receive a word from God without instantly having to deal with it. You may disobey and then wonder why you do not grow spiritually, or why you do not receive God’s full blessing. The teachings of Christ hit you where you live; He makes you sensitive to things you have not thought of before. When Christ brings something from His word to your attention, you are not to shrink from it. Note the things you shrug your shoulders about, and you will begin to realize why you do not grow spiritually. First obey. Regardless if others think you are fanatical, you are to do what God tells you.
Oswald Chambers in the book of daily readings, My Utmost For His Highest, (July 28) gives an important insight in considering people’s obedience to God. He says,
”We often imagine that if Christ tells us something and we obey him, then He will lead us to great success. But we must never see our dreams q‘success as God’s purposefor us; in fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We seem to get the idea that God is leading us to a particular point, a desired goal. But He may not be. The matter of our arriving at a particular point may be coincidence. What we tend to call process, God considers purpose.
His declared purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I manage to stay calm and unperplexed in the midst of turmoil, that is God’s purpose. God is not concerned with a particular finish; His end may be what I see as process … His walking on the waves with no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. So it is really the process, not the end, that glorifies God. God’s training is meant for now. His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future.
What men call training and preparation, God calls the end. God’s end then enables me to see that He can handle the chaos of my life just now. If we are looking farther ahead to a more distant end, we cannot pay sufficient attention to the immediate present; on the other hand, if we realize that obedience is the desired end, then each moment as it comes is precious.”
Evidence that would seem to convince most Christians they were out of God’s will is threefold: a lack of peace, a lack of desire to serve God and others, and a worldly value system. So the ways in which a Christian can know he is in God’s will would be just the opposite:
Peace
This means you are at rest inside about what you do and where you are. Nobody has ”perfect” peace. But, if you rest well at night and wake up the next day with joyful anticipation, you have peace. ”Peace I leave with you; my peace I. give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid ” (JOHN 4:27).
Desire to Serve
A desire to serve God comes from having an eternal value system rather than a temporal one. Compared with enjoying rewards for eternity, enjoying material rewards for only a few years would seem a poor trade. Do you really “believe you will live with God forever, and that your rewards will be proportional to your service? The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (MATTHEW 23:11-12).
Godly Value System
It is amazing how often we are tricked about what values are important. God wants us to View values from the perspective that this life is just a training period for eternity. ”Since everything will be destroyed… what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives” (11 PETER 3:11). God does not want you to suffer. You are ”chosen.” He tells you He has prepared a Kingdom for you from the beginning of time. Moreover, He desires to bless you in this lifetime. You just need to allow Him to do so.
Using Money As A Tool
Solomon became one of the world’s wealthiest men, and he shared with the wise his secrets for acquiring wealth. Scripture often equates the acquiring of wealth with wisdom and hard work, and with help from God, family, and friends. It is possible to lose these blessings, however, by refusing to manage and distribute them according to God’s will. Is it also possible that God might withdraw His blessing from those who refuse to be obedient to His will? Yes, without a doubt. ”However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you (DEUTERONOMY 28:15). The real sign of God’s blessings is not material abundance; rather, it is obedience that yields abundance. Unfortunately, the more you have, the more you begin to serve those possessions. You are admonished throughout the Scriptures to forego the love of the world and its things. ”Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love if the Father is not in him” (1 JOHN 2:15).
Money is a tool God supplies to enable you to accomplish His plan. True followers are described throughout God’s Word by phrases like: they followed and obeyed. For the many Christians who accept God’s material blessings as a responsibility rather than a reward, God promises even greater blessings. “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (LUKE 6:38).
It is clear from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians that God never made a universal promise of material prosperity to believers. Because the Christians in Corinth were both affluent and influential, they assumed that affluence and influence were ”normal” expressions of God’s blessings. Those who were not so ”blessed” were deemed inferior. It was this attitude that the apostle Paul addressed directly. ”For who makes you difierent from anyone else What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? ” (1 CORINTHIANS 4:7).
God promises only a sufficiency to meet every need. ”And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Iesus” (Philippians 4:19). God’s challenge to our generation is very clear in Revelation 3:17; ”You say, ’I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” The true believer must guard against that most subtle attack of the enemy prosperity. When in doubt, give more and spend less. In Proverbs we see that work is inseparably linked to profit. There is no easy path, no shortcut to success.
”He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son” (10:5). ”He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment”(12:11). ”He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who looks after his master will be honored” (27:18). ”He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill q‘ poverty (28:19).
There are other paths to wealth, but they are not open to the wise person. Obsession with wealth is the undoing of some in the business world. ”A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished. A stingy man is eager to get rich, and is unaware that poverty awaits him” (PROVERBS 28:20, 22. The proverbial advisor to businesspersons says, ”Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint” (Proverbs 23:4). Success, if it is lasting, must be carefully and painstakingly pursued. ”. . .He who gathers money little by little makes it grow” (Proverbs 13:11).
If success defined in monetary terms is not to be pursued by any and all means, you can probably infer that’s not there are other, higher values that determine success. ”A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold ” (PROVERBS 22:1). Seeking good, not gold, is the higher aim. ”He who seeks goodfinds good will (PROVERBS 11:27). Righteous wisdom is the highest of all pursuits (PROVERBS 3:13-18). These values reveal a perspective broader than “bottom lines” and bank accounts. ”Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, so but righteousness3 delivers from death” (PROVERBS 11:4). Suppose monetary success should come to you or your company. In this case, two principles may serve as guides. First, do not misuse or flaunt what you have. ”The lazy man does not roast his game, but the diligent man prizes his possessions” (PROVERBS 12:27). Second, do not forget the source of your success. You need to remember that your best efforts are mere puffs of smoke if God has not ordained that success, for it is He alone who makes both rich and poor. ”The LORD works out everything for his own end even the wicked for a day of disaster” (PROVERBS 16:4). ”Rich and poor have this in common: The LORD is the Maker of them all” (PROVERBS 22:2) ”The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The LORD gives sight to the eyes of both” (PROVERBS 29:13).
Tithing from Business Income
According to God’s word, the ”first fruits” even of your businesses belong to God. But can you tithe from gross income? Obviously not, because unless a business is very unusual it does not gross as much as a ten percent profit. What then is appropriate? Scripture says to tithe from your increase. Now, the increase of your business is measurable. It may not be measurable by financial statements because most financial statements include depreciation and tax write-offs. But increase can be determined by changes in company’s position from one year to the next. So, although riches can and should be responsibly enjoyed, should God bestow them, perhaps the best approach for us is found in the prayer of Agar:
“ . . . Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ’Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God (PROVERBS 30:8-9).
You tithe, according to Deuteronomy 14:23, in order to learn the fear of the Lord. “Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.” Moreover, Proverbs 1:7 states, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and God promises wisdom to those who honor Him with a tithe. A life lived in His wisdom demonstrates God’s purpose and goal in our lives. You are to reverence the Lord, praise Him and honor Him. Thus you should not do it quietly, privately, or alone. Genuine honor to God must be observed and shared. Your giving to the Lord is an example of honoring Him. It is an act of public dedication and public commitment. Proverbs 3:9 reminds us that our gifts should honor God and be from the first of our produce (increase), ”Honor the Lord by giving Him the first part of all your income, and He will fill your barns with wheat and barley and overflow your wine vats with the finest wines (PROVERBS 3:9 10). II Corinthians 9:13 says that giving is a proof of our real faith.
”Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the Gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.”
Setting Priorities
Christians are to maintain a balance in everything they do. One of the first and the most important things a businessperson can do is to set aside time for personal study and prayer. God’s Word says that it is by grace that we are saved; that is, we did not earn our salvation. God says, ”You do not earn favor by studying the Bible. You do not earn favor by prayer. You do not earn favor by doing these things.” Therefore you do these things not to gain His favor but because doing them enhances your life. Personal prayer and study time does not make us more acceptable to God, but is very important to our own growth. You need planning time to gain proper balance in your lifestyle. The time comes when, if you are operating and running an organization, you simply need to get off by yourself to do some planning. You need, as an absolute for doing that planning, to commit your business unto Christ.
So if, over a long period of time, you find that your lifestyle or your way of operating a business, does not allow time for that, then you know your life is out of balance. Quality family time is also needed; it is an essential investment that needs a conscious decision. You cannot just wait until you think you have the time, for there is no substitute. When you finally do have the time, it will be too late. Your children will already be grown and gone, and whatever influence you might have had in their lives will be gone as well.
The Psalmist says: ”Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (PSALM 37:4). One of the ways to do this is by transferring ownership of everything in your possession including your business to Christ. When you do, Jesus may well say, ”You transferred ownership over to Me, and I do not want you to be a part of it anymore; I want you to divest yourself of it because you will be unable to assign it the right priority in your life.” Or, when you put your business in Christ’s hands, may perhaps say, ”My friend, I believe you have expanded beyond your boundaries. ’Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me’” (MARK 10:21).
NEXT: Chapter 8: Leadership
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Chapter 7: A Successful Business
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