“Land for sale - 120 acres”
The sign just went up on the other side of the road where we are currently staying in south-western Michigan.
To the urban eye, it’s just a bunch of flat open fields you’d drive past without even thinking about it. But to the shrewd farmer (and I’ve rarely met a farmer was wasn’t shrewd) it’s a potential goldmine - depending, of course, on the commodity prices. You’d be amazed at how much money people will pay for 120 acres of land.
Opportunity knocks. Or does it?
In the business world, people make careful evaluations before coming to a decision on an investment opportunity. If they don’t, they are likely to lose their shirt.
Why is it that we make so many personal financial and life decisions without going through that type of process? And then we wonder why things don’t work out.
Life presents us with all sorts of opportunities. The sad thing is most people don’t know how to handle them. We miss the right opportunity, take the wrong opportunity, and wind up in a mess.
God can help us with that, but it takes a little bit of work. Here’s three short suggestions to help you on the way.
Learn to think Biblically. Fill your mind with the Word of God. Read Proverbs regularly. Learn to evaluate opportunities in life by whether they enable you to obey God, advance his kingdom and keep your personal integrity, marriage and family alive. Jesus put it this way: Seek first his kingdom and all the rest will be added. Our problem starts when we’re so busy looking for quick routes to “all the rest” that we forget the kingdom part.
Surround yourself with wise and strong counsel. Find friends who already think Biblically, friends who will hold you to account, friends who love you enough to tell you that decision you desperately want to take is unwise.
Start to pray. Prayer is the single most productive thing you can do to increase your financial or personal success. I do not mean that is the primary purpose of prayer, but it is one of its many beneficial by-products. Jesus taught us to keep on praying. “Ask, seek and knock” are in the Greek present continuous tense. As we pray, God draws us deeper into his heart, adjusts what we’re asking for, and helps us to see our goal should be to make the choices he wants us to make, not the choices that look or seem good to us.
These principles apply far beyond financial decisions. They apply to all the choices we make in life.
If you’ve messed up in the past, which we all have, thankfully we have the grace of God to pick us up and move us on. But hopefully part of the moving on is learning from the mistakes of the past so we don’t make them again.
So when opportunity knocks next and you’re tempted to make a decision without going through the process, just slow down a bit and engage with God. It may save you a lot of grief, and quite likely a lot of money.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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