The term Jehova Jireh is a translation of a Hebrew term that roughly means "The Lord will provide". As I've been working through John Piper's book on God's Providence, and other things I've been thinking about this concept regularly for a couple of years.
I firmly believe that YHWH provides for the needs (and then some) for myself and my family. I firmly believe that nothing happens to us that does not pass through YHWH's hands first and that it is all for His glory.
Recently I've been struggling with how this plays out in real life, and what my role in all of this is. I'm pretty sure that if I sit around and do nothing all day that YHWH is not going to magically meet my needs. Yet I'm, also pretty sure that it's not 100% based on my effort either. Lately I've been really focused on being thankful for every opportunity I get to work with people, and to remain thankful whether or not they choose to work with me.
But what I've noticed is that when I do the activities (lead generation and follow up) that I know I should do, things happen. For example, I got a text from some old clients out of the blue today and they are possibly interested in purchasing an investment property. They also referred another client to me earlier this month. I'm somewhat convinced that when I am diligent in doing what I can do to generate business, that I am more likely to see things pop up that are not directly related to the specific things I do. I feel like this is where YHWH is moving with opportunities that I can't claim are a direct result of my work. I don't want to discount the fact that I've done multiple transactions with this family, and that they have been happy with my work. Or that they are friends. Although, they have tow other friends who do what I do and they could easily have called one of them,
I guess what I'd like to do is come up with a "theology" of self employment that puts YHWH is His rightful place, and me in my rightful place, without it becoming some sort of a transactional relationship. I know that part of the reason I want to do this, is because I want to know how it works so I can hold up my end better. I suspect, that I'll never really be able to because I suspect that YHWH is more concerned with me being thankful and giving Him the glory instead of me taking more credit than I should.
I know this might sound a bit rambling, but the fact that I had this drop in my lap today pushed me to finally try to express where I am with this.
SDG
2 comments:
Your "Could Be" post suggests methods we can employ to use God's gifts. As you say, to sit on your butt doing nothing would not result in too much of benefit. But doing things the right way is akin to doing things God's way and as a result, God brings forth good things for us...even when we don't recognize them. Just keep plugging away and leave all else to Him.
I agree that we have to do the activities necessary to perform out jobs, while acknowledging that YHWH is really the one responsible for our success.
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