Seek to Live Out the Fruit of the Spirit - Integrate Faith in Business #3

by Dave Kahle

This is a question that lurks in the deeper reaches of almost every Christian professional and businessperson’s mind.  The answer isn’t simple, and it varies from time to time and place to place.  In an effort to shed some light on it, I’m going to do a short series of posts on it.  This is the third.

The Christian life is a journey and it is best lived by focusing one step at a time.  It’s like walking through a forest at night, with just a small flashlight to light your way.  You can’t see more than a few feet ahead, and the light illuminates only the next few steps.

Use that analogy to gain a perspective on the question.  Your answer to the question today may be different than it will be just a bit down the road.  Because our circumstances vary, we’ll encounter different opportunities and relationships today then we will further down the path. So, the specific answers to the question of ‘how do I integrate my Christian faith with day-to-day business practices” often depends on the details of the situation in which you find yourself.

Scattered, Depressed, Discouraged, Confused?

You may be under spiritual attack.

Find out, and acquire the solution.

You’re invited to participate in an extended on-line conversation on the impact of spiritual warfare on Christian businesses and Christian business people.

Join a group of like-minded Christian businesspeople struggling with the same thing you are wrestling with. Review a series of questions designed to help you recognize and resolve spiritual warfare. Respond to the questions, and to other’s responses.

As a consultant for 35 years, I’ve observed that the tactical details often differ dramatically, even in similar situations. For example, an executive may be mulling over the decision to terminate an employee.   Another executive, in a similar situation, has an almost identical set of circumstances.  In one case, the decision to terminate is obvious, and in other not nearly so.  The difference is in the details. The answer to today’s circumstances is just today’s answer, and not necessarily a lifetime prescription.

What’s important is that you keep asking the question and that you seek to build deeper attitudes, principles and habits into your personal routines.  If you want to confidently make tactical decisions, then you need to commit to a set of unwavering values.

Those unwavering values are composed of principles, practices and habits that extend beyond the specific details of our current situation.  These apply regardless of the circumstances.

In the first of these posts, I identified the first: Shift Your Paradigm. In the next, I unpacked the second: Pray more and pray more intentionally.

In this article, I’m unpacking the third:  Seek to live out the fruits of the spirit.

Let’s begin by understanding the fruits of the spirit. They are listed in Galatians, chapter five:

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,   faithfulness,²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22, 23

 These are character traits — which is another way of... READ THE FULL

 ARTICLE HERE.

Intro:  Here’s my response to this question: Dave, I’m a salesperson. I feel really conflicted between the culture of the job and my commitment to Christ.  Do you have any suggestions as to how I reflect my Christianity in my job?

         There are lots of challenges and great opportunities in the role of a Christian Salesperson. In this podcast, I share some wisdom from 30 years of sales.