[Please join me in praying for our world on Tuesdays this year.]
“What you are will show in what you do.” – Thomas A. Edison
Yesterday I was reading about entrepreneurial businessmen of the late 1800’s. Men like Cornelius Vanderbilt, James J. Hill, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, James Buchanan Duke, J. P. Morgan, H. J. Heinz, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla were hugely influential in changing our economy, business, and consumer’s daily lives. They became very wealthy because they produced many jobs and low-cost consumer goods that helped to improve the average person’s life. Contemporary politicians or journalists and current historians may paint them as “robber barons,” but their good business practices – time management, cost-cutting, improved operations, and new technology – probably combined with poor practices of competitors and a bit of luck – made them very, very, very wealthy.
But with wealth comes responsibility.
“You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” (Deuteronomy 8:18 ESV)
It is God who gives us the power to get wealth. And he expects us to then give it to those around us who are in need.
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38 NIV)
The book I was reading highlighted the giving that some of these men did in their lifetimes. For instance, John D. Rockefeller, who started businesses that became Standard Oil Trust, “devoutly believed that God had made him a trustee for [his] hundreds of millions, to to be kept but to be given wisely and carefully…[W]e must not forget that Rockefeller began to give as soon as he began to earn.” (-historian Allan Nevins) Rockefeller and men like H. J. Heinz, of the food preservation company, cared for their employees with pensions, medical care, clean and well-lit work environments, and educational opportunities. Andrew Carnegie, of Carnegie Steel, wrote, “The man who dies rich dies disgraced…Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.” Even this man who was an avowed unbeliever understood that wealth is a responsibility.
Not all these entrepreneurs – or today’s business people – understand their power to produce wealth as a result of God’s blessing. Not all understand their responsibility to give. After all, Jesus tells us that good “fruit” comes from a good tree. And we know that only by being rooted in Christ can we overflow with good fruit.
“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” (Luke 6:43-45 NIV)
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” (Colossians 2:6-7 NIV)
So, today, let us pray for the entrepreneurs and business people of our era. May they be people who are seeking God, rooted in Christ, and guided by Holy Spirit to good fruit, wealth, and great giving to Kingdom principles.
God,
Thank you for the gifts, talents, wisdom, and direction you give those who seek you first in their businesses. Thank you for businesses that provide jobs, provide quality products, and help to enhance our lives. Today we pray that you would send evangelists, teachers, and pastors to the business and economy sector of our world so that your Word may be revealed to people within this sector, so their business practices will reflect your Kingdom values, and so that they will honor you with their wealth. Guide them to being people who produce good “fruit” and wealth, and then help them give that wealth to organizations that help to further your Gospel and your Kingdom. We ask in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
h/t “United States History,” 4th ed., BJU Press, ch. 16