Being Bold for Christ as an Entrepreneur

The community of online creative businesses seems to be overrun with darkness.  You can’t scroll through Instagram or Pinterest without seeing swear words diluting beautiful images.  In this community of online business owners, you can’t help but come across people bragging about their wealth, crediting their six and seven figure incomes to everything under the sun except God.  

I felt my heart race in fear when I realized God was calling me into this arena. Not only was He calling me to take the leap into this industry, He was commanding me to do it boldly.  I realized later that He was calling me to be bold for reasons much bigger than myself.

As aspiring entrepreneurs, we get overwhelmed with excitement at the flood of new ideas, goals, and dreams.  We work ourselves tirelessly, experimenting with new strategies, obsessing over our analytics, and studying our competition.  We begin to run on less and less sleep to find more time in the day to tackle our to-do lists.  Then, the fruit of our labor sprouts.  We get so excited and begin to attribute our success to our own diligence and perseverance.  But the bible tells us,

“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” James 1:16-17.  

Every good and perfect thing in your life has been the Lord’s doing.  You are His precious child.  The business ideas, success, goals, and dreams you have in your heart could very well come from Him.  God allows us to be successful.  We may think at times it was our own doing, but the reality is that God is the provider of our success.

If God is the source of everything that is good and perfect in our lives, including our business, how then, could we not be bold for Him?  How can we settle for not acknowledging Him?

We have to ask ourselves why we are being silent.  If God is the provider of our platform, our success, and our joy, why would we not want to rejoice publicly about Him?  Are we ashamed of Him?  Are we afraid of offending someone?  Afraid of losing customers?  Can you imagine if Jesus and the disciples were afraid of offending people by spreading the gospel?  Where would we be?

We must never forget that we are to make disciples of many nations.  If we have an online presence or “following”, we literally have the chance to make disciples.  But are we too selfish?  Do we only want to lift up ourselves and the business that rightfully belongs to God without including Him?  

There is an abundance of entrepreneurs who credit their success to many things, but how many do you know who are willing to attribute their success solely to the grace of God?

There are Christians who want to be entrepreneurs who are looking for like-minded people to serve as mentors and inspiration for them.  There are young women who need to see that Christians who are bold about their faith can be successful.  I have seen women confess that they have been coached by people who warned them not to mention God in their online business.  Young women are falling into the enemy’s trap of remaining silent about the goodness of God.

When God gave us the vision for Humble & Whole, we knew that we had to make a choice.  The enemy whispered to us that we didn’t have to be bold for Christ to be successful.  There are plenty of examples of entrepreneurs who use foul language like it’s a casual thing and those who shame others who aren’t making six figures yet in their businesses.  The enemy told us we could be successful apart from God.  

I remember sitting on the balcony of my apartment, going back and forth, unsure of what to do.  But I couldn’t ignore the feeling in my heart that God was calling me to be bold for Him.  I had been praying for radical faith in God.  I told Him that I didn’t want to settle for being average in my life anymore.  I knew He was waiting to see if I truly wanted to act like I had radical faith in Him.  If I truly meant that He was my everything.  But God revealed something else to me too.  He told me to set the example.  My boldness for Christ is not for myself.  It’s bigger than me.  My boldness for Christ is for the young woman whose mentor told her not to claim Jesus Christ.  My boldness is for those who do not yet know the goodness of our Savior.  My boldness is for the one who wonders if she really can be successful and unashamed.

Being bold for Christ in business means I have a chance to let my light shine:

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.” Ephesians 5:8

Being bold for Christ in an industry tainted so heavily with deceit, dishonesty, and greed is not the easiest thing to do.  But I understand that it’s truly the least I can do for a Lord and Savior who did everything for me.  I also understand that I am the one who has the advantage.  I serve a God who is not lacking or limited in anything.  I choose to honor God with Humble & Whole most importantly because it is rightfully His, but also because I am believing Him for a prosperous business.  I don’t want any abundance in my business apart from God.  I know that if it comes from Him, then it is because He wanted me with that blessing.  I don’t want anything outside of the will of God.

Are you bold in your business for Christ?  Have you stopped to ask Him if He wants you to be?