Friday, March 11, 2011

Guiding your business with wisdom




“He will guide his affairs with discretion.”

Those who neglect their worldly business must not plead religion as an excuse, for when a man is truly upright he exercises great care in managing his accounts, in order that he may remain so. It is sometimes hard to distinguish between indiscretion and dishonesty; carelessness in business may become almost as great an evil to others as actual knavery; a good man should not only be upright, but he should be so discreet that no one may have the slightest reason to suspect him of being otherwise.

When the righteous man lends he exercises prudence, not risking his all, for fear he should not be able to lend again, and not lending so very little that the loan is of no service. He drives his affairs, and does not allow them to drive him; his accounts are straight and clear, his plans are wisely laid, and his modes of operation carefully selected. He is prudent, thrifty, economical, sensible, judicious, discreet. Men call him a fool for his religion, but they do not find him so when they come to deal with him. “The beginning of wisdom” has made him wise, the guidance of heaven has taught him to guide his affairs, and with half an eye one can see that he is a man of sound sense. Such persons greatly commend godliness.

Alas, some professedly good men act as if they had taken leave of their senses; this is not religion, but stupidity. True religion is sanctified common sense. Attention to the things of heaven does not necessitate the neglect of the affairs of earth; on the contrary, he who has learned how to transact business with God ought to be best able to do business with men. The children of this world often are in their generation wiser than the children of light, but there is no reason why this proverb should continue to be true.

From the Treasury of David, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, exposition of Psalm 112. Image by Orest under Creative Commons License.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These words are true, for what the Lord has loosed in us shall be loosed in the earth, once, again, us, and throughout the world. We are to be good stewards as the Lord has created us to be...and He moves. No! He doesn't like ugly, and by ugly I mean: pollutted waters(hearts alike).