Walking a path of business ownership has not guarantee of success but will have challenges and opportunities to quit. God’s Word promises us that He will always make a way to get through the test but it is up to us to find that path. By Gary Shotton #000465

Faith Walk

By Gary Shotton

This text is in Extreme Rough draft and will be edited in the near future.

Hello my name is Gary Shotton, and I’m here as a part of Inspiring Better Business. And today I want to talk about “Faith Walk”, and it’s a walk with God, how do we walk with our businesses in faith, and I’m just have an assumption here that a lot of people are viewing this and a lot of Christian business people here, only the good reports and when you hear testimony we hear how somebody started with nothing and they grew real fast and we don’t get the whole picture, We, we don’t really get the whole walk, you know, down a pathway there’s some rods, and there’s some rats and there’s some rocks and there’s some climbing and there’s some difficulties and so we get to the peak, but we don’t hear about the trail. Well, in our Christian world there’s a chance of us only hearing about the winning. So I’m not here to discourage anyone. I’m not here to, to make it sound overly difficult. I’m just saying hey, the truth is, is that there’s some bumps in the road, there’s some curves in the pathway. Well, for myself, my first real job out of college was in the state of Wyoming, and I was an engineer and had aspired to be a professional engineer and my first really big bump was my attempt to become a certified professional engineer, I had the whole church praying for me. I had my family praying for me. I studied and I studied and I studied and I took this eight hour test and guess what, when I came back and I got the results. I was embarrassed. I didn’t pass the test. Oh, that was disappointing and I could have quit and that though, by not passing that test, I took a different course in line. Number two, I was, while I had that first job I had multiple lines of income, and one of those was I had some cattle, and my first four cows, I had four cows, and I have four babies, and I don’t know what happened on all of them, but three out of the four mama cows died. Cow Lee. Am I on the right path, should I have done this, well I stuck with it, and I went ahead and Kate stayed engaged and you know eventually that was from the capital money, that made me allowed me the monies to move to my new town to start Bible school. Well, in my new town, I move 1000 miles from my original town to a new town, and I went there I went there to learn how faith works, and I learned how to be led by the Holy Spirit. And so I had pre planned and I had pre arranged that I would probably select one of several good jobs, because I was, I was a skilled individual in my profession. I got to that town. Absolutely not one job available to available to me. Oh, no, but I knew God had me do this and I didn’t leave lose faith in any of these cases, and then in my first real business. I was, I was working hard I worked so hard. There wasn’t any more energy and it was so many times it was hard to make payroll, hard to pay all the bills. I was, oh God Is this what you want for me. So, again, I had some victories, but I also had these lumps in the road road these bumps in the road. These difficulties you need to hear about, so that when you are on your pathway, you’re not thinking if something’s wrong. Well, my current ownership is a machine shop, mostly man, heavy equipment, close very precision making machines that make metal parts, and in that I was doing fine for the first couple years. And then, Oh this one year happens and the economy drops totally out. Oh, no. Whoa, and I watched what I said in all these I’m telling you how I felt. But each time I watched that I didn’t say negative things. Oh, what am I gonna do, I didn’t tell everybody. Oh, pray for us because I knew God was going to take us through this, but it was hard. It was difficult, and none, none of them any more than right now, we’re just coming out of the pandemic and two years ago when that he had. Oh, we’re not sure what was going to happen, you know, this is all part of it. Well, it’s time we come to realization that the pathway is a little longer than most people think a lot of people think they’re going to get rich or have their successful businesses in record time. Well, let me look at mine, my first business I own for 17 years. Right now, I mean this business now, a little over 14 years, and I’m making good headway. I’m making progress. I’m having success but there’s bumps in the middle of that. A lot of people ask me how do I go to the next level. Well, these are the levels I had, I had to prove patience and endurance and faith and confidence that God was going to see me through, you’re going to have to do the same thing. You can’t bail out, I hear of people during this pandemic time that husbands are are leaving their wives. Fathers are leaving their families, people are shutting down their business because it’s so hard. I’m telling you, if there’s no other option or gods into this stick with it, work hard, continue with seeking God, here’s some verses that I think you need to land on. Hebrews 11 Six says, But without faith it’s impossible to please God. Oh, and he, and he that cometh to God must believe that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. So keep seeking God, and there’s a key word there, without, without faith it’s impossible to please God. And then another parallel verse that’s really, really good is how do you get faith. Well Romans 1017 says, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, you’re going to gain faith and you’re going to retain your faith. If you stay plugged into God’s word plugged into your local ministers and plugged into a network of people that are along the same path of believing God in faith, this is gonna work. This is not gonna, I’m not gonna fail, watching your confession, and these are reflections of what’s inside your heart, what comes out of your mouth. And so all of this are wrapped together around the reality that you must maintain your faith and hearing the Word of God is part of that, and it comes from the word of God, and then James chapter one verse 234 says we’ve counted all joy when you fall into various trials or temptations or test, knowing that this crowd or test is developing patience. Oh, I don’t want to hear that. I don’t I it’s not, I’m not counted all joy, I’m not being joyful for the fact that I’m in the test, but in the middle of the test, I’m going to count it a joy than in other words the attack comes, I’m saying things like God, thank you that you’re a God that never fails me thank you God, you’re a God that opens my eyes and I can see and understand how to get through this thank you God, that you’re going to give me a pathway. Thank you God that you’re going to give me wisdom that the eyes of my understanding are are open so I can see the way out, because that’s what it says that, that we counted all joy when you fall into various trials of various kinds, you’re going to find those tasks. Now, one last one is I Corinthians chapter 10:13, there is no temptation or test that comes to any person that’s not common to all people, but God will always make a way of escape, that you may be able to get through that test, read that several times first Corinthians 1013 God is faithful, you’re not going to ever be tested above that, that you can pass the test. It’s not automatic, but you can find a way out, God wants that. Well, a couple of Bible examples are a bunch of them real fast, know what he was moved with fear when he was trying called it to, to build the ark and people ridiculed Him, Sarah before her name was say right before her name was Sarah wanted to a baby and she was very old in her 90s Oh, it wasn’t looking good, because they had been promised a kingdom of God through their childhood Abraham was a was tired and it was tried, and he had, I was asked to offer his only son as a sacrifice. That’s not very enjoyable. On three who Hebrew, serve it’s Chad drag me shack and I’ve been to go we’re thrown into a fiery furnace, because they wouldn’t bow to the, the statue was made. Daniel was thrown into the lion the lion’s den. All these are not happy things but there are things that you can look at that that will God will show you how to get through these tests. The tests are going to come your way, and you don’t necessarily rejoice for them. You rejoice in the middle of them. I always report free refer to Paul inside as when they were in prison going to be killed the next morning, and all they were at midnight, what were they doing sobbing oh no no, they were praising God, and singing to God, for the honor of being tested. If you want to go to the next level, be ready for the test, if you want to see success. You’ve got to be ready to say, I’m like I’m here God, give me another test because it’s going to teach me how to learn, and obey you in a closer way. Thanks for being a part of inspiring better business.

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