Do you have more to do in the day than you have time for? Are you managing priorities and projects? Everything comes at you at high speed. Your list goes something like this:
- make the sale,
- get the next client project started,
- close out a deal with a client,
- deliver a presentation, and
- hire a new person for your team.
Does it seem like there’s not enough of you to go around?
Rest in Jesus
When the job is overwhelming and the world goes one way and you need to go to the other. Or when there is too much to get done and not enough of you to get it done. When things are coming at you from every direction … Jesus tells us to rest in Him.
Matthew 11:28–30 (KJV 1900)
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
We all wear many hats. Our businesses (and our lives in general) demand a lot of us. We are supposed to run and run and run and then run some more—or so we think. The reality is when things are getting too much to handle, when your day is not just full but filled to overflowing, then it is past time to go to the Lord for rest.
Psalm 46:10 (KJV 1900)
10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
Peace and Perspective From Dedicated Time with God
The time you spend with God each day keeps things in perspective. It calls upon you to stop and be quiet and connect to God. He knows your burdens. God knows your pain and worries. Even if you can’t form the words to ask, to pray, to thank, God knows. The Holy Spirit speaks on our behalf when we can’t find the words.
Romans 8:26 (KJV 1900)
26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
A Moment in Prayer Improves Your Ability to Work
I have a practice of many years: when things are extremely chaotic in my business or personal life (or both as it usually works out), I send up a prayer:
“Lord it’s me again. Please keep the line open today because the only way I will get through it is with your help. I am praying to you who know what I need even more than I do. Please help me through this day, stay close to me, and guide my steps.”
I personally know I need all the help I can get from God on a daily basis. I am strong, but not strong enough for all that the world throws at me.
Time with God Priority One
The world catches us up in its activities and behaviors. Are you blasé about what you see and hear? Are you accepting as as “normal” or “customary” things that are unacceptable to God? When you take time out to spend with God each day, especially when the world is telling you to run faster, do more, and chase “success” at any cost, your priorities become clear.You focus on the important things, the truly important things, and say “no” to all the rest.
In the World, Not OF the World
Don’t become accustomed to the world. Be alert! Being aware of the lure of worldly things allows us to take to God the things that tempt us. We reside “in” this world as temporary residents. Do not behave as the world does.
In order to deal with the challenges in this world, your best tool is prayer that strengthens your reliance on God. Do not behave as the world does. Independence, self-reliance, and refusing to ask for help, especially from God increases your stress.
Rely on God
Dependence on God differentiates you from non-Christians. It also changes how we run our businesses and live our lives; that is the way God directs us. We are His completely, leaning on Him, turning to Him, relying on Him to be with us especially if our path is not smooth, the winds not calm, and the world not following Him.
2 Corinthians 5:1–6 (KJV 1900)
1For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
I can go about my work each day and face each day knowing that one day I will be with the Lord, for I am His.
Author: Lea A. Strickland, MBA MA CMA CFM CBM GMC
Copyright ©2012 Lea A. Strickland
All Rights Reserved