Bless my Business

Q: What type of business/company does God bless? (I am starting a home-based business, and I`m asking God to bless and prosper it. So I`m wondering how I should run it or use it... for example, I should honor the Sabbath, give tithes from my income, be honest, etc.)

A: I must admit that I believe the premise of your question is off. Far be it from me to say what God blesses and what He doesn't. But, God is more interested in you understanding the blessings He has already given you, as an individual, through your faith in Jesus Christ more-so than anything else. Ephesians 1:3 states, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." This is referring to the inheritance we have received as a result of the death of Jesus Christ. In other words, what mankind needs is not a prosperous business as a result of our attempts at obedience, but we need to be restored to God through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the past ten years I have been involved in at least three home-based businesses and inquired about many others. Many of my peers were Christians and seemed to believe that the Bible encourages and even promises success at our ventures if we just exhibit enough faith or dedication in our walk with God. This turned me off of the businesses because it gives the subtle indication that God wants Christians gaining the world as a result of their faith or obedience.

Granted, that may not be your motivation or the motivation of many involved in home-based businesses. But, the attitude is prevalent in the industry. At the time I was heavily involved in home-based businesses, a relative of mine gave me a teaching by a popular pastor geared towards motivating me. The teacher used the well-known passage from Philippians 4, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13)." His belief is that this passage teaches Christians that God will bless our plans in life because of our faith in Christ. I turned off the CD player when I heard him go down this path. This passage, no passage in the New Covenant, even slightly suggests that God desires Christians to have prosperous businesses. Instead, this passage teaches us to be content in life regardless of whether things are going as planned or not. It is about us understanding that since God has "given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3)" we do not need to be concerned about how our businesses or our life is going at a particular moment in time. If you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing and been given everything you need for life and godliness, through your faith in Christ, what more do you need from God?

The fact is that if you don't believe God has sufficiently blessed you then your only alternative is to seek what you don't feel you have from the world. And what the world offers can only be achieved through some form of sin. For many Christians they will turn to a life of self-effort in order to get God to bless them. When you ask about honoring the Sabbath or giving tithes of your income this is an indication that you may believe God will bless you through law-keeping of some sort. Christians are not under law of any kind, much less expected to keep the Sabbath or tithe. "So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ... (Romans 7:4)." How does one expect to be blessed by God through obedience to something they are dead to? God does not require Christians to keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not a day of the week, but a daily attitude of resting from our self-righteous acts designed to get God to bless us. "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his (Hebrews 4:9-10)." Furthermore, you will not find any passage in the New Covenant that teaches a believer to tithe.

Many Christians are taught, as I was at one time, that God demands we tithe a percentage of our income to Him. And if we do He will "throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it (Malachi 3:10)." And if we don't tithe our income we are labeled as "robbing God." Well, who wants to rob God? Nobody. Therefore, we willingly part from our money in order to be blessed by God and avoid His wrath. This teaching destroys the love of God because Christians are operating in fear of Him in hopes that He will bless them for their perceived obedience. However, these are Old Covenant passages, written to the nation of Israel, hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. Christians are encouraged to "give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7)." When you have everything, you willingly share it with those around. And that is what Christians have in Christ. We not only give of our time, treasure and talent to advance the Gospel message, we are giving God to the lost world. We do this out of a heart of thankfulness because of all we have, not out of a wanting heart looking for further blessings.

When our focus is on ourselves, our businesses and our desire to be blessed by God, we are not focused on God, on Christ or all we have already been blessed with in Him. I don't say all this to discourage you from pursuing your desired goal of a prosperous business. But, I would not focus on whether or not God will prosper your business based on what you do for Him. I would focus on how you can be a blessing to others you come in contact with as you grow your business. God has blessed us to be a blessing to others. Jesus said, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:17)." God's desire is to save the world through Christ. And He does that by using Christians, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, sharing the blessings they have in Christ with others. And the best way to get us resting from trying to be blessed by God was for God to bless us with everything in Him. When we are no longer seeking worldly blessings we can focus on God blessing others through us with what He has given us in abundance. I hope your business is successful, but I pray that you don't see your business as an opportunity for God to bless you, but as an opportunity to bless others with the God who has blessed you with the gift of Himself.