3 Keys To Eliminate Sorrow

Business is hard. Christian business is at least as hard, maybe even harder. I don’t know about you, but I find myself riding a roller coaster of emotions as we attempt to run our family business with an eternal perspective. Of course, it is only when I am down or depressed that I need help dealing. The highs usually take care of themselves. We need to be more intentional with the sorrow.

Multiple Causes Of Sorrow

If you are anything like me, you face times when you feel a loss of hope. Maybe it is frustration at decisions we have made in the past. It could happen when we are not seeing the results we think we should be seeing from the work we are doing. There are also those times we think there is no hope of breakthrough in the future.

A good friend of mine referred me to a great daily devotional book (Streams in the Desert) that I have been using more and more lately. It was a simple quote from this book that gives us the three keys to eliminating this sorrow we experience:

I suspect that the source of every bit of sorrow in my life can be traced to simple unbelief. If I truly believe the past is totally forgiven, the present is supplied with power, and the future is bright with hope, how could I be anything but completely happy?

Three Keys To Eliminate Sorrow

When we break this quote down into its three parts, and combine it with Scripture, we truly have three keys that will help us minimize the sorrow that we can experience while trying to run our businesses as platforms for Christian ministry.

Let’s take a look at each key:

Key #1: Past Is Totally Forgiven!

This is the first step we must take to eliminate the sorrow that can plague us. We must truly believe that our past is totally and completely forgiven. I think my favorite verse that communicates this idea is the following:

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:12

Folks, once we have repented and asked forgiveness for our sins, it is not God who continues to throw them back in our face or whisper them in our ear. It is our enemy that attempts to incapacitate us with guilt. God forgives and forgets. The enemy is called the accuser (Revelation 12:10).

Once we accept this truth and continue to remember it, we eliminate a huge source of our sorrow. Without this reappearing guilt, our lives could be so much more peaceful and stress-free!

Key #2: Present Is Supplied With Power!

The second step we must take is to recognize that our present is supplied with power. While many of us do not always operate in or with this power, it is there and waiting for us to step up and use it!

Here are a couple of verses that I think do the best job of communicating this:

For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.
2 Timothy 1:7

But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.
2 Corinthians 12:9

When we stop trying to strive in our own power and instead allow His power to operate in and through us, then we will have gone far to eliminate another significant source of sorrow in our lives.

When we repeatedly ignore what the Scripture says about the power of Christ in us, we are saying we think we can do all of what is expected of us – on our own! This is madness. Jesus say we can do nothing apart from Him (John 15:5). We need to accept this and embrace His power IN us!

Key #3: Future Is Bright With Hope!

Finally, the third step we need to take is to see the future filled with hope. Rather than staring into the darkness that is a symptom of our temporal perspectives, we must embrace the hope that Christ gives us when we maintain our eternal perspective.

The following verses serve as examples of this hope for the future:

For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13

Sure, there will be times that we fail to see this bright future. There will be times we feel there is nothing but sorrow ahead. But if we can recall these promises from the Scripture, and hide them in our heart, the hope we need will come back into view.

In doing so, we are eliminating the remaining traces of the sorrow surrounding us.

Summary

The bottom line is this – you will experience sorrow as you attempt to run you business from an eternal perspective. That is inevitable. At the same time, if you will follow the three simple keys outlined above, you can eliminate this sorrow before it goes too far.