Many times life puts us at crossroads where we need to make choices. Some choices have little consequences and others have lifetime implications. As a Christian faced with decisions with regards to accepting or rejecting a job position, keeping or dropping a current occupation, or engaging in entrepreneurial activities, there are a few guidelines to help us through.
Defining Priorities
What are your priorities? This is a foundational question as nothing we would be highlighting here would matter if our priorities are not defined as Christians. As Christians, our primary goal is to please God and prepare for the kingdom He’s preparing for us.
Christians in scripture, even those who were at some point at the top of the economic ladder, had one purpose and that was to please God. Joseph for example was never blinded by a 10-years written plan to become a world ruler such that he would sleep with Potiphar’s wife as a means to this good end. Rather, whether in the pit, prison or palace, honouring God was His priority.
Daniel is another such example, having been granted the opportunity to dine with the king, his desire to honour God surpassed his desire for fame or recognition, even his desire for life.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” The Christians’ duty is first to God and God directs his paths to success. When you make career-related choices, what are your first thoughts? Do you consider God’s will or your highest personal gain?
Your Father Has the Whole World in His Hands
When God called the disciples, they left “all” and followed Him. Peter left his duty post as a fisherman and Matthew as a tax collector and yet when Christ asked “when I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, did you lack anything?” they said “nothing” (Luke 22:35) Money can never be the problem for a Christian and should not be the first reason for choosing a career. We serve a God who has got the whole world in His hands. He can rain bread from heaven and money from a fish’s mouth. And when he chooses to do this through a paid job we must be careful lest the job becomes an idol in place of Him.
He doesn’t endorse laziness and gives us talents, skills and job opportunities so that in the industry we can honour him. There are rents to pay, parents, siblings or children to support, perhaps even debts to pay but realizing that God is not limited by the paycheck might cut the pressure off a bit when we’re at crossroads.
Ignorance Is Not Bliss
Hosea 4: 6 says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. We’re not safe in not knowing God’s will.
Making a career choice without consulting bible principles and the specific will of God is like driving an automobile having never seen a manual or received training on its use. God has a word for everything. Do not make assumptions until you have prayed and studied about it.
God’s Plan For You as an Individual
Besides the general rules in God’s word and the general goal to glorify God, God has a personal plan for each of us. He has talents he wants us to invest in and places he would love us to serve. Remember Jonah. There was nothing wrong in holding an evangelistic crusade in Tarshish, after all, they also needed the gospel. However, Tarshish was a wrong mission field when God wanted Jonah to be in Nineveh.
Let me share a beautiful promise with you: “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” Jeremiah 29:13 If you’re really asking God’s direction, if you’re really willing to do nothing but His instructions, He’ll make it clear
At every crossroad, please remember God first.