Material Possessions vs Our Calling in Business – Who Wins?
Every Christian entrepreneur’s struggle is the battle between the lust for material possessions and God’s calling for our business.
The reality is you can’t chase both. Both thoughts can’t rule the mind.
You’re either chasing God’s purpose for your brand or chasing things.
We’ve all experienced a God-given strength to do something pretty cool in the marketplace – a holy spirit inspired product or service that lets us know we’re on the right track. But that’s not good enough for us. We start seeing what the new money did for us, and we start chasing after it more! Even when we believe God has blessed us with that money, we can still turn on him in an instant. The Bible says:
"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." (James 4:1-3 NIV)
Think about what this looks like in your business life. What causes you to choose our own way, over what you say you believe is God’s calling for your Entrepreneurial journey? In my experience, nine times out of 10, it’s because I see something I want, and then, right in that moment, that becomes all I can think about.
Lust in entrepreneurship makes us think: I want it. Entitlement as a business owner is that little voice that takes “I want it” and adds “…and I deserve it”:
I work hard. I’ve earned this $300 cologne.
I’ve invested my heart and soul into this business, I deserve this Porsche.
When we start listening to that whisper of business-owner entitlement—I need this. I deserve this. I earned this—we’re simply justifying our lust, instead of turning our hearts toward what we know God wants for us to focus on in our businesses.
Comments