253 Integrating faith and business: a new series

Hi there and welcome to the Christian Women in Business podcast. So amazing to have you here today. I want to challenge you over the next couple of episodes of this podcast, I’m going to be covering like a mini series. So it’s all about putting business and God together. Now, for some of us, this might seem like a real basic thing.

We’ve already covered this a lot of times, and others you might be new to this, but I really want to, over the next couple of weeks, really spend time going over what does it mean to put God and business together, and what does that look like for us as Christian business owners. So if you’re feeling weary, if you’re feeling tired, spend stretched, whatever, I really want to encourage you to stick with us in this series because I hope by what we talk about and what we go through, it’s gonna enable get refreshed by going back literally to the basics, the simples, the, the routine.

in our businesses of having God and business together. So you’re coming out of the grind, but entering into the grace again. And throughout our businesses, there’s different seasons that we go through. Sometimes we are and do feel complete in alignment and like we’re working through that grace. and then sometimes things pop up or things creep in that take us out of that grace zone and we can often feel like we’re in the grind and that no one’s really with us in that grind or no one really understands where we’ve all been there we all get it and it’s very very easy to get back into that grind so i’d love to have the opportunity to really speak goodness into your lives over the next few and really soak into how Do we incorporate God and business together?

So the first point of that is, and what I’d love to go through today, is one, there’s no separation. There is no separation in our lives with God. He’s there all the time. And the second point is acknowledging God for wisdom. So going to the first point. there is no separation. In western culture, in those of us who are really blessed with comforts and, um, you know, first world problems um, it can often be really easy to think, well, I can go out and earn my own money.

I can go out and do this in my own strength. Like I, I attend church on a Sunday and that’s it, that’s, that’s my faith done for a week and then you leave God at church and then you go about and do your week. But that’s not what this walk’s all about and Paul teaches that a lot through Acts. We see it a lot in how he moves and how through all his mission, every step of the way, it’s always faith, always praise and prayer. In whether he’s in prison or writing a letter, like Paul doesn’t share the word and share the gospel and then gets sent into prison and thinks, well, God’s only there when I’m sharing the gospel. He’s not in here. So I’m just going to sit here and feel sorry for myself. He doesn’t do that. Yes, there’s a time for hurt, time for grief, a time for dealing with difficult customers, whatever it might be.

But it’s about having God with us in that journey throughout our business and throughout our lives as a whole. So do you apply, not do you apply, do you embrace God in every situation of your life? Do you bring him into your business? And if you don’t, I invite you to do so and to have that courage to do so.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that You know, you’re going to become an evangelist in one day, that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is, how are you operating and how are you operating out of that love, out of that grace, out of that direction of Holy Spirit, and living that out throughout every aspect in your business.

So if we break down that in business, what does that look like? If we think about it in different areas of our business, we’ve got marketing, we’ve got systems we’ve got People and culture um, which we’re going to um, touching on in our next Thrive Business Reset is how do we manage our people well?

How do we build teams that are in line with our vision? So that’s, that’s a massive part of showing the love of God to our business. Yeah, and then systems and operating procedures. So how, how do we include God in all those kind of really worldly aspects of our business? And then how do we do it on a more spiritual level too of, okay, I’m going to have these meetings today.

God go before me. I’ve got to make a real difficult decision. Give me the courage to have those conversations. And how do I go about it or direct me to the person that is going to help me. to make that decision. So for marketing, it can be gone. I’m struggling with marketing ideas today. I like, would love your help, your um, and creativity to give me some ideas about how I can market my business today or what can we do that’s relevant to our businesses to keep bringing in leads.

So that might be one aspect in marketing. It could be in your marketing team where the, been given a product to and praying again about the best way to get that product out into the market and a message that’s going to work. If you’re a copywriter, Lord, give me the right words to write this copy for a client, or what’s the best way to set something up for a client, for example.

So that’s kind of the marketing aspect. So I would encourage you to start you might think my faith comes with me wherever I’m already setting that, what are some different ways you can start including God. In your business and in your day that you might not necessarily, might not necessarily be doing.

Now uh, within your people and um, it can be what, what culture are you set in? is the way that you treat your team coming And that doesn’t mean that you have to be walked over, not by any means, but are you being, are you showing integrity? Are you being transparent with your leadership?

Are you being honest about where the company is going? Are you giving honest feedback in PDRs? Which is, you know, your personal development reviews. Um, Some companies call it something different. Are you creating opportunities in staff to help them learn and grow and building that positive culture within your team, whether we like it or not, those as leaders and as business owners, we do set the culture.

It does come from us. We’re at the top of our businesses. So are we doing in a really positive, loving with integrity and with transparency. So that’s just a couple of ideas of the literal, like including God in your business. And as I was preparing for this podcast today, I asked God where to send me.

And we went to Proverbs 19 verse And so it’s the one who gets wisdom loves life, the one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper. And I would love today to speak that over your life and encourage you to love your life enough, love who you are enough as a business owner, to go seek wisdom from God, even more wisdom.

We all go through different seasons, different things happen in our lives, different things happen in our businesses, still come back to the wisdom. Are you getting that wisdom from God? And are you asking that? And are you doing it out of the love of yourself too, not in a vain way? I love the life that God’s given me.

I want to do the best I can for him. I’m worth doing the best that I can for How can I do that better or more? So that’s the first section of that. So those, the one who gets wisdom loves life. Love your life. I love my life, God. I’m grateful for it. It might be hard at the minute. Business might be hard at the minute.

I’m going to be like Paul and I’m going to praise you in these hard situations and seek wisdom from you and then cherish that understanding that God’s given you once you’ve asked for that wisdom, it might come in a roundabout way that you’re not expecting. It might be hard as you’re going through it, but cherish that moment of learning and put into action the different pieces of wisdom that sit right with you.

Of when you’re in that situation. And know that you have permission to do that. And know that it’s going to be okay to prosper. It’s going to be okay to move forward. It’s going to be okay to build your team. It’s going to be okay to branch out in different ways in your marketing. So, that was Proverbs 19, 8.

The one who gets wisdom, gets wisdom. The one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper. And I love this um, quote that was shared. So it’s by a lady called Megan Faye Martian, I believe is how you say her name. And it was shared on the Proverbs 31 women’s ministries and it’s God values. So kindness over competition, celebration over envy, reconciliation, reconciliation.

Over being right and love over self consciousness and today I want to talk about the love over self consciousness. We as humans tend to look at worldly over heavenly and sometimes our self consciousness and what we think of ourselves Can stop us from gaining the wisdom, can stop us from moving forwards, be it ego, low self esteem um, just the, the self beliefs and the self, core self beliefs, like deep down beliefs that we believe in ourself, that can, Stop us from moving forwards and I know my own journey over these past couple of months I’ve been really focusing on those core belief and values and what I think about myself and where are they coming from especially the negative And trying to transform them into the positive And I encourage you to do the same too and to choose that love and that compassion on yourself over the self consciousness, because when you do that, that then ripples and comes out into your life.

And then how your team and how others perceive you just becomes different purely from changing that core belief or core value. You might, I don’t know, have a really silly belief like God doesn’t want my business to be successful because I’m not worth it. Well, where does that core belief come from?

Because that’s not true. That’s not what God says. So, in his word, what does he say and what do you need to replace that core value with? So, as you go out to become a leader in your business to set those core values, the way you do your marketing, whatever it is in your business, It’s coming out of a good core self belief, something that God put in you for goodness that will help um, align with him and bring that God and business together.

So there’s lots of different avenues and lots of different ways that that can happen. Um, But a lot of the time it’s us that are in the way. things that we’ve been taught when we were younger, our core beliefs, where our security’s in. And once we kind of get that right and really have that deep security in God and our core beliefs, I believe that doing business with God is going to take us to a whole other level.

It’s going to take us to a whole different understanding and a whole different faith mentality. So I want to encourage you today. You’re doing an amazing job. You’re doing such a good job. Seek God for wisdom in your business in every area and for your core belief and values in yourself and ask him to bring to the front, what is it that is stopping me from moving forward in this core belief.

Like, I want to intertwine you in every area of my life, and if there’s a core belief that’s stopping me from moving forwards in my business, what is it that I need to change, so then that can have like a ripple effect on everything else, and cherish that wisdom that’s God will give you and, and allow that prosperity.

I don’t wanna sound like a prosperity coach, that’s not where I’m going. But allow that to help make you prosper. I don’t just mean in a monetarily value, it can be prosper in your team um, how you’re treating your customers or different areas. So I’ll leave you with that today. Um, I’m looking forward to sharing more on this series about. business and realigning ourselves with God. But that’s just the start focusing on, okay, God, you need to be in every area of my life and every area of my business and in every area of myself. And what is it in me? That’s a core belief or value that I need to change from negative to positive that stopping me from moving forward so that I can be a better steward for you so that I can grow this business for your glory.

and really step into that faith zone that God’s designed for us to do business in. I’m SJ, you’re listening to the Christian Women in Business podcast and I look forward to seeing you next time.