Ep. 281 - Work and Sleep Like a Calvinist [Business 300]

0:00Hello and welcome to Business 300. My name is Philip Kulachoff and this is 300 seconds about business. We're all a busy people, so I'm five minutes or less to get my point across. Almost done here, I'm certain. God will provide is a comfort when you're facing uncertainty. It's a reminder that you're not in control that God is sovereign and faithful. But there's a common misstep here when Christians use God will provide to justify inaction. They don't prospect because God will bring the right customers. They don't fix broken systems because God will work it out. They don't make difficult decisions because I'm waiting on the Lord. But that's not faith. When you do that, you're not trusting God's sovereignty. You're avoiding responsibility and using theology to cover for it. There's a big difference between faith and abdication. Abdication treats God's sovereignty as an excuse for passivity.

1:01If God wants it to happen, it'll happen without my hustling. There's nothing I can do. Scripture is full of pictures of men of faith. None of those men were passive. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Nehemiah, Paul, and Jesus And what more shall we say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barack, Samson, Jeffith, of David and Samuel in the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms and forced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong of weakness, became mighty in war, put forth armies to flight, Hebrews 11, 32, 34. By faith, these men worked. All while insisting God was sovereign over outcomes. Some people realize this, so they try to rely on their own agency for their results. The phrase, work like an Armenian, sleep like a Calvinist, tries to capture this. Work as if everything depends on you, and sleep as if everything depends on God. But that's also wrong. You can't treat faith like something you toggle on when work is done.

2:01The same way you ought not use God's sovereignty as an excuse to not work, neither should you ignore God's sovereignty in your work. Work and sleep like a Calvinist. Trust God's sovereignty in both. Let that assurance drive your work ethic, not replace it. Faith in God's sovereignty is like strapping jet packs to whatever you're doing. Instead of being paralyzed by outcomes, you're liberated to pursue them fully knowing God governs the results. If what you're building aligns with His will, perhaps it'll work, so run hard by faith. If it doesn't, you'll be refined by the failure, so run hard by faith. Either way, you're not wasting effort. God is at work, so get to work. Real faith doesn't sit still. It runs hard. Trust in God's sovereignty doesn't eliminate your agency. It fuels it. When you believe God doesn't control, you're free to act boldly knowing the outcome isn't ultimately on you. Faith and work are not opposites. Faith fuels work. It removes the crippling anxiety that everything depends on you getting it right.

3:03It lets you act decisively because you're not the decisive variable. God is. When you trust God's sovereignty, the fear of failure shrinks. Not because failure doesn't hurt, but because failure isn't ultimate. God uses it. He refines through it. You're free to take risks, make decisions, work hard without the crushing weight of needing to control the outcomes. Is your God will provide mindset, producing action, or excusing inaction? Faith is making decisions, pursuing opportunities, working diligently, assessing feedback and redirecting action all without freaking out. You're running hard because you believe God is sovereign, not in spite of it. Abdication is avoiding hard conversations, delaying decisions, letting problems fester because you're trusting God to handle it. You're using Calvinism to hide from responsibility. God's sovereignty doesn't eliminate your role. It defines it. You're called to steward what he's entrusted, to work with excellence, to make decisions with wisdom, to act faithfully in what's in front of you.

4:04Work like you believe God governs the outcomes. If you do, you'll work more, not less. You'll act decisively, not timidly. Faith in God's sovereignty doesn't produce specificity. It produces confidence. God will provide is true, but it's not an excuse for doing nothing. Faith runs hard. Work like you believe God is in control because He is. Work and sleep like a Calvinist. Work and sleep like a Calvinist.