How to Avoid the Snare of Riches When God Calls You to Business

If we are not careful, idolatry will creep into our hearts, and before we know it, our business has become the god we serve rather than the God who gave us the gift of the business. We will say, “well, the business is for His glory, so it’s okay if I’m not spending as much time with Him.” This is a lie, and it is deception. It can be easy to mask selfish ambition in our lives by claiming even to ourselves that it’s ultimately for God.

Fear will always open the door for idolatry. The fear of not being provided for, and the fear of not being protected will lead us to make idols out of the little we have. This is exactly what the Israelites did in Exodus 32. When Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving instructions from the Lord for God’s people, in their impatience, they go to Aaron to make them a god they can follow like the other leading nations around them.

Because they feel perhaps God is silent, or He is not moving at the pace, they desire, they move on elsewhere. They compare themselves to those around them and try to copy what everyone else is doing.

Temptation doesn’t start the moment we face something we know isn’t good for us. Temptation starts the moment we are unsatisfied with what we presently have.

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

1 Timothy 1:6-11 ESV

Idolatry is the fruit of not being content and choosing to find contentment for our souls outside of the will of God and the person of Jesus Christ. “You satisfy my soul” is one of the greatest declarations we can ever make.

Thus, my prayer must not be “Lord keep me from idolatry” but rather “teach me to be content with who you are and all you have provided for me.”

This is easier said than done. Especially when we feel the Lord challenging us to step out in faith and start a business. How do we know we are striving in our flesh versus stepping out in faith as we are led by the Holy Spirit? How do we know we are going at His pace and we are doing it His way?

One of the best ways to guard against this snare and deception is to develop a Morning and Night Routine that Keeps you Rooted in Christ. When you keep a listening ear for the Lord and allow Him to continuously check your heart, this will guarantee that you are doing it His Way.

Here are a couple of key habits the Holy Spirit has taught me to implement that can help you:

1. Prophetic Declarations. I declare the life vision God has given me, as well as the prophetic words and promises pertaining to who I am and what He said I would do to keep me grounded in His Words over my life. This reminds me that God has the final say and keeps me focused on where I need to put my time and energy.

2. Silence and Solitude. I sit before the Lord (sometimes setting a timer), meditating on scripture, and I wait until I hear Him speak. Anything I feel He is saying, I write it down to then pray over it later.

3. Praise and Worship. This is the fastest and most sure way to get my eyes off of me and on to Him. There is no room for me and my selfishness when the meditation of my heart is His beauty. From this place, His burning eyes full of fire cleanse me, exposing my sinfulness and wicked ways, desires, and ambitions. Burn it up, Lord, burn it up!

4. Confessions. I take time, mostly through journaling, to share what I am feeling and what my anxieties are. I take these to the Lord, and He will either speak prophetically over the situation or lead me to a Bible passage in order to shift my perspective and root me into my inheritance of the Heavenly reality.

Here are 3 ways I know personally know I am out of alignment:

1. When my personal time with the Lord becomes shorter in the mornings and nearly nonexistent in the evenings. I make the excuse of ministry and work.

2. One of the most immediate ways I personally know I am out of alignment is if I am eating too much. If I fall into a lot of emotional eating and overeating because I am stressed and “busy” all of the time in the name of my future, my goals, my ministry, my business. I know that I am moving too fast. I have gotten to “me” focused.

3. Another sign for me personally is that I am scrolling on social media when I am tired. Instead of taking a moment to talk to the Lord, I numb the stress I feel with the dopamine rush that social media provides.

When these things become habits, and I see that my time on social media is equal to or more than my time spent in personal devotion, when I see that I have gained weight, then I know my body is telling me: we are out of alignment with the pace of grace that God has set for me.

I often take time with the Holy Spirit every couple of weeks and every couple of months to do a deep audit of my life: emotionally, relationally, spiritually, mentally, and financially. It is during these times of intentional reflection that I invite the Holy Spirit to shed light on the areas of my life He is calling me to grow.

I share this because a crucial part of victory is self-awareness. The number one way Satan keeps us in bondage is by making our dysfunction seem normal so we never even want to change. Ask the Holy Spirit to expose behaviors in your life that are keeping you from the pace God has for your life.

I’ve heard it said before:

If Satan can’t keep you from your promise, He’ll get behind you and rush you into it because he knows if you enter it prematurely, you won’t be able to sustain it.

He is waiting to bring you back into old sin patterns when the weight of the mantle becomes too heavy, and you fall. We must go out the pace God has set. Otherwise, we risk having to sustain blessings that were outside of God’s timing. I believe it was first Michael Todd I heard say, anything God does not give us in the timing He desires is a curse over our lives. We have to sustain anything we receive outside of the timing He desires.

By going at the pace of God in our lives, He will keep our hearts in check, ensuring that we remain in a position of contentment. If I am striving for anything in life: business, ministry, relationally, it is because I am not content with what God is doing and how God is doing it.

Develop a solid life routine that keeps you rooted in who you are in Christ and that allows the Holy Spirit to convict you, and you will find yourself free and safe to pursue the business that God has for you.

Keep building, beloved! You are well on your way.

Let me know in the comments how this blessed you!

If you would like to grow spiritually so you can be an entrepreneur and business owner rooted in Christ, I encourage you to learn more about our Ministry School for Business.