“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
Growing Dominion, Part 39
No one controls his own life. No businessman controls the variables that govern the success of his business. At the same time, there is a correlation between our behavior and whether we prosper or not. When we see this correlation, we often make the mistake of thinking that the correlation between our behavior and the successful result means that our behavior brought about that result in some necessary mechanical way.
A businessman does many things to oversee and manage his business, and yet the most industrious merchant controls only a tiny fraction of those events that will determine whether he prospers or not. The remainder is entirely in the hands of God. Moreover, when someone sees this it leads him to the necessary conclusion that even that fraction that he did perform was also a gift from God.
When a man does not perform the duties that are obviously set before him (paying bills, ordering stock, keeping the books), it is clear why that business fails. But if he does all those things, it does not mean that these things in themselves made the business grow. Only God brings growth. As the apostle Paul once put it in another context, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” The planting and watering is important, clearly, but everyone in business needs to be hungry for the one thing that matters-the blessing of God.