1 Cor 7:5

…outside were conflicts, inside were fears…

Building a business is often tougher than it looks: on the outside, you’ve got to get through the red tape of administration, staying legal, growing your customer base etc. Then you’d need to work out the logistics of operations, managing people (especially staff) and planning for the next phase. When you handle the helm as a visioneer, the chances are extremely high that you are fighting a two-part battle:

1. Helping people to see that there is a real problem: one that needs to be fixed.
2. Showing them how you can help them: that you are an answer (or maybe even THE answer)

But the real battle isn’t in the outward conflicts. It’s in your mind. It’s in the days when you don’t feel good enough, powerful enough, or wise enough. It’s in the mornings that you wake up to ask whether it’s worth it. It’s in the moments that you are asking yourself whether societal expectation, family demands and peer pressure is right and you are wrong. It’s in the niggling fears that stand in your face as you calculate the risk for a decision. It’s in the secret terror that you will fall on your face, and fail woefully.

A number of things stand out for me in today’s verse:

1. Nobody has it together. Paul (the “almighty” Paul who had the entire Roman empire shaking and quaking in their boots, who – arguably – travelled more than any other apostle to share the gospel, who wrote two-thirds of the Bible) had his fears. It might be safe to accept that the fear is a part of the deal.

Fear is our human self, reacting from the place of limited experience, to the concept of divine boundlessness.

But our Father, who handed us this assignment, to build a business, as an altar, or a contact point between man’s needs and Heaven’s answers has this for you:

…eye has not seen, nor ears heard…

On the days when fears seem to overshadow you, please remember that God can and will blow your mind. If He brought Paul through his fears and the conflicts, you can be triple sure that He’s got you.

2. Fears do not render your dream invalid. They had inner fears, and faced opposition at e very turn. But they kept going, putting one foot in front of the other …until they achieved the goal of spreading the gospel to the Gentiles.

There is no failure, until you stop getting up to move.

There’s someone who used to say to me: it might not be the kind of progress that you want, but every step closer towards your goal, is progress. Slow, fast, tough, easy  …don’t give up. As long as you don’t, you are winning.

3. Stay connected. Sometimes, it’s the people around you that He will use. Other times, He will bring you out of the situation. It could be a new strategy, a new place, encouragement, open doors… anything. When you stay connected to God, and the vision, He’d definitely show up for you.

You’ve got this; because He’s got you.

Abba loves you, and so do I.

Shalom!

Hadassah bath YHWH

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