Blessing Your Business

Business men and women have an opportunity pastors don’t: they have the
privilege of rubbing shoulders on a daily basis with lost people. It is
in this setting where carriers of the Light intermingle with people
sitting in the dark that the kingdom of God shines the brightest. As
anyone knows who has ever been in the depths of a cave, even a candle
seems bright when all you’ve had before was total darkness.

I say it is a privilege, because Jesus our Savior seemed thrilled at
the opportunity to be among people who were pre-believers. He was
maligned by religious leaders for His propensity to eat with sinners,
drink with sinners, and spend time in the homes of sinners. The most
unlikely people were attracted to Christ when He went among them
without religious robes: people who confessed their sins, poured
ointment on His head or feet, and loved Him for the love He displayed.
This was in contrast to the Pharisees or Temple leaders, who wanted the
esteem of their office to be recognized and who were quick to judge
non-religious people who had not yet measured up to the standards of
their law.

Invading the secular with the sacred is the assignment of the day! God
is commanding us to take the kingdom of God outside the sanctuary. He
wants us to sanctify our homes, our places of business, education,
entertainment, government, media, commerce, and our neighborhood. There
is no arena outside God’s oversight; there is no area that touches our
lives in which God is not interested; there is no person or profession
about which the Lord is not concerned. The kingdom of God is bigger
than just the church!

Yet “church” is what we usually relegate spiritual things to in our
thoughts. We want to separate the holy from the profane. Yes, we are
commanded to be holy, for our Father in heaven is holy, so we ought to
become like Him. But, we are not to draw a line and say “What I do on
Sunday is holy and what I do Monday is not. That’s God’s business; this
is my business.” That is erroneous thinking! If you are Christ’s, then
everything you do is for the Lord and is done in His sight. Your
business is God’s business!

How do you sanctify your business? The Bible says that “all things are
sanctified… by prayer.” This is why we have the common practice of
“giving thanks” over our meals. Not only are we grateful to God for
supplying our daily bread, but we also, by our prayer of thanksgiving,
sanctify that food so that it becomes holy for our use. This was
especially important to the early church since most food bought in the
marketplace had been previously offered as a sacrifice to idols. This
had become an issue to the church. The apostles said that it was
resolved by prayer and by thanksgiving. So how do you clean up
something that has been contaminated? By offering it back to God.

Jesus said that the “altar sanctifies the gift.” Whatever we place on
the altar as a sacrifice to the Lord, giving up our rights to it, by
that act, becomes holy. Why? Because the Holy One we are giving it to
is holy. God is holy. He “makes holy” whatever (or whoever) He receives
or relates to.

If something as earthly as the marriage bed can be holy, then surely
something as mundane as a place of business can also be holy! Amen? It
is up to us to keep defilement out of our sphere of influence and it is
up to us to bring God’s wisdom and God’s grace into our private and
commercial world. How do we do that?

I don’t believe we do it with slogans or signs. While there’s nothing
wrong with that, it may actually become false advertising unless we
first transform our ideas and actions to conform to God’s ways. For
instance, if an employer takes advantage of his or her employees by
requiring they work overtime but then doesn’t compensate them, yet they
have “Jesus is Lord” on their business’s stationery, does that really
glorify God? Of course not! God watches how we treat fellow workers.

To bless your business, you have to first become godly in all your
conduct. Here is where the Fruit of the Spirit, the Sermon on the
Mount, and the Ten Commandments give us parameters of behavior that can
produce God-ordained blessings. The greatest commandment, according to
Jesus, is that we love God with all our being and the second
commandment is that we to love those near to us, our neighbors.

In the old order of an agrarian society, our neighbors were those with
a family farm down the lane. Today, our neighbors are those who work
alongside us in our place of business. Most people today are closer to
their co-workers than they are with their neighborhood. Small group
meetings for prayer or Bible Study can network together better with
co-workers now than with neighbors, often due to the logistics of
two-income households and shifting work schedules. We spend more time
with fellow workers than we do with family or with fellow church
members. The Body of Christ has many connections.

Employees or students can become salt and light to the world when they
meet discretely for prayer and invoke blessings on their company, its
leaders, and their corporate mission. If they want a new boss, they can
get new one by praying for their old boss to get saved. There is secret
power publicly released when two or three agree together in Christ.

Much more could be said about invading the marketplace with Christ’s
peace than what I have space for here. The gospel is good news
everywhere it is received and acted upon. People who lead or manage
other people in business have a unique opportunity to bless them with
their witness and benefit them with their counsel.

The favor of God will flow upon leaders and their team when the
invisible Head of all things, our Lord Jesus Christ, is acknowledged
and honored.

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© 2004 “Blessing Your Business” by Ron Wood, President and Founder of
Touched by Grace Inc, P.O. Box 12749, Wilmington, NC 28405. Visit our
website for more materials at www.touchedbygrace.org. To partner with
us, send your tax-deductible donations to Touched by Grace. This
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byline are kept intact. We are touched by grace to touch the world!