worry – Christian Business Leaders

Sunday’s Coming

Yesterday I met with an amazing group of believers who are working on a project to train entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. The Edmonds Entrepreneurial Leadership Training is offered through Marketplace Connections and the work being done here has been done in India and Africa, and has produced incredible fruit! Starting this meeting in prayer, and being focused on God’s agenda in all of this reminded me of why it’s so important for Christian Business Leaders to fellowship.

Because Sunday’s coming.

We don’t live in happy times. In fact, my six-year-old daughter came to me a few days ago, worried that the world is going to keep getting worse and worse and that less and less people are going to care about Jesus. She wanted me to tell her it was all going to be all right. I remember when I was that age, maybe a bit older, being so scared that the Russians were going to drop a nuclear bomb on us (I’m dating myself, but interesting how time cycles). The reassurance I got was that no one was crazy enough to do that because of retaliation. Small reassurance, but that’s all you get when you don’t know Sunday’s coming.

I don’t lie to my kids, so I couldn’t tell her bad things weren’t going to continue to happen. And she’s six, so it’s not quite appropriate to break out Revelation and inform her just how bad it is going to get. But I could tell her the good news.

Sunday’s coming.

God always, always, takes care of the people who love him and try to obey Him. And no matter how bad it gets, or what you hear, or how many people hate you in His name, He will take care of you. So you have to hold on to that promise, and believe it even when everything in the world tells you otherwise.

Sunday’s coming.

How different are we from those disciples 2,000 years ago, who were questioning whether maybe they’d just gotten carried away? Did we just believe what we wanted to be true? Were we stupid? Was everyone else right? Maybe I should just get back to my job and worry about how to make enough money to feed my family. He’s not coming back. Things wouldn’t be this bad, this tragedy wouldn’t have happened, if God was good, and He loved me.

Sunday’s coming.

We’re living in Saturday, in a world that tells us we’re crazy, evil, and stupid for believing as we do. The overwhelming majority of our culture holds us in contempt. Highly learned, respected, famous, and wealthy people use their influence to paint us in the worst possible light and attempt to make us question or recant our beliefs. We’re not unique in this place and time and the sad reality is that as hard as it feels, we have it ridiculously easy compared to people in the past or other parts of our world today. And even though God takes care of us and provides us peace and comfort, we don’t escape physical persecution in the world, and that’s scary. But Sunday’s coming.

He has overcome death, and through him we will too. And in the meantime, we need each other. We need to encourage each other to spread light and show Him to the world through our example. We need to share His peace and comfort. And we need to keep going, to prosper, and to live in His abundance.

Because Sunday’s right around the corner!

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The nice thing about having God in my life is that I never, ever, worry about anything, and my lifelong anxiety just evaporated.

Hahahaha

I wish that was true. I know it’s certainly the goal, and if there’s one thing Jesus was pretty clear about, it’s that we shouldn’t worry about things; that it’s a waste of time. We all know that, and we all know that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

And yet how many of us are groomed from birth to see worry and fear as a sign that we’re being conscientious, or just wise?

I know in my pre-believing days, there were certain born-again believers that irritated me SO MUCH because they were just so calm and peaceful. It was like they thought they were immune from life. Even when the world was crashing down around them, they just had these smug little smiles like they knew something I didn’t. After I became more ‘successful’, I was particularly perplexed by the people who had the nerve to be so relaxed when they were earning less money, or had less ‘stable’ jobs than me. It almost felt like they were taunting me. At least, that’s what it seemed like from my place of complete brokenness.

My journey out of fear and anxiety has definitely been a three steps forward, two steps back, kind of thing. I KNOW that God has it all under control, and that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and that I’ve got the spirit of the living God inside of me. So why was it SO scary when I got laid off of the job I didn’t even like but that paid so well? And why do I always get nervous when a consulting gig is winding up and I don’t have three more lined up? It seems like the more is at stake financially and/or professionally, the bigger the potential fear bombs, as we constantly slip into worry that we might lose it all (…and then what? We’d die? So many lies from the enemy tied up in the whole money thing, isn’t there?)

If I’ve been keeping spiritually fit and these fear bombs pop up to try to derail me, then talking to another believer is so comforting. If I’ve been runnin’ and gunnin’ on my own, too busy for prayer, meditation, time in the Word, or fellowship with other believers, then that same wise counsel I might get from other believers can feel judgmental. I feel much like I did back in the day; defensive and angry, and all too ready to explain why that won’t work for ME because my circumstances are so much different, so unique, so much more difficult than anything anyone else is going through. Blah blah blah.

I suspect that’s one reason why we’re supposed to stick together. I know when I roam too far off the ranch, it’s more painful than it needs to be. If we’re constantly getting bolstered and encouraged by one another, that fear and worry doesn’t even get a chance to take root, and we can enjoy each others’ company all the more.

Today I pray that if you need fellowship, God will guide the right people to you, and that you’ll receive their comfort.

How will you stay out of fear this weekend?

If you enjoyed this, please share the love, and please join the group on Facebook, where we connect to encourage each other and fellowship.

Tag: worry

Sunday’s Coming

Dodging fear bombs in your professional life