Business Truism Number One: Planning is mandatory for business success. Business resources are always exclaiming “Fail to plan and you plan to fail!”. We’d all agree that it’s Business 101 to have a vision and a strategic plan, namely, what we see the business becoming and what we understand as being necessary to provide for that.
For those of us for whom business is a calling from God, the difficulty is that while we are often gifted visionaries and/or strategists, God’s specialty class in Faith Building 101 almost inevitably involves a journey down a dark and/or unfamiliar path.
How do we reconcile being strategic people with allowing God to direct our steps into a future as clear as pea soup?
Abraham is known as the father of our faith, because he pioneered this faith development course for the rest of us. I also think he was quite an entrepreneur, as Genesis 13 tells us he was wealthy in livestock, silver and gold… so successful in fact that the land couldn’t handle both his and Lot’s possessions.
By the time we catch up with him in Genesis 22, he’s already uprooted his entire life to go somewhere God hasn’t told him about yet (Genesis 12), he’s believed a vision of infinite descendants despite his best strategic contributions amounting to naught since he and Sarah were ancient (Genesis 15), and he’s about to sacrifice the miraculous provision of Isaac – the only option for realising the vision (not to mention the delight of his life).
Genesis 22v 13-14: Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
Jehovah Jireh literally means the God who sees and is seen. Our word “provide” is from the Latin “to see.”
God sees what we see
Often, as business owners or managers, we carry countless perspectives that only we see. Have you ever found yourself awake at night with a traffic jam of thoughts that, if not driven and parked somewhere safe, will continue to cause havoc in the streets of our minds and businesses? We often feel alone and overwhelmed by the responsibility.
God sees THAT stuff. In his classic sermon on the topic of God’s provision, Charles Spurgeon reminds us that for God to see IS to provide. When He sees a need, He supplies for that need.
Next time you are in that position, include God in the picture. Acknowledge that He sees what you see, and that, for Him to see is to provide. The provision might still involve you, but you’re releasing the responsibility into His hands.
God sees what we don’t see
So back to the dark and unknown paths.
Part of the stress of being responsible for the success of our businesses is anticipating the future and planning responsibly for all possibilities. But when we’re on these paths, we can’t see. There was a lot Abraham didn’t see. In those cases, his strategic plan actually became: “Whatever I don’t see… God will see to it.”
I am a strategic person, but recently went through a protracted season of darkness. God had given me a dream but it was of the incomprehensible variety (the grain sheaves bowing down type – i.e. not really translatable into conversation without getting weird looks and fewer invitations to dinner)… and when I say darkness, I’m talking can’t-see-my-hands dark. People would talk about their plans for the next year, I was struggling to make plans for the next day. Not fun.
But what I learned was that when I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light (Micah 7:8). Sometimes all we can see is Him. And He sees. And again, provides. I have countless of stories of miraculous provision.
Psalm 121 starts off by stating that our help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. In the 6 brief remaining verses, the Psalmist declares 5 times that the Lord will watch over you. When God repeats Himself like that, we can be assured that He really wants us to know something. And that something is that He sees. And for God, to see, is to provide.
Jessie Bloore
