Are you living for your plans or His?
Are you willing to pay any price to follow Jesus? Would you venture to a mission field where less than one percent are Christian like Brother Bennie’s father did? In the book, “My Father’s Business —making the most out of His MUST”, Brother Bennie shares the joys and challenges when his father was called to do missions. Initially resentful, it was God’s faithfulness that softened Bennie’s heart and called him to do similar work. “God’s faithfulness is not determined by our own. He is faithful, no matter how faithless we are, and His goodness is not diminished by our sinfulness.”
Our default, as sinful creatures, is to go after our business and not God’s business. Bennie explains this with his perspective on his parents’ work. “Their business made no sense to me. It generated no money and made me unpopular with my friends. In fact, it made our entire family look foolish to everyone around us.”
For a while, Bennie followed his own business plan, with a focus on money and worldly success. While supporting family is a noble venture, Bennie acknowledges his motivation was ultimately self-serving as he struggled with his parents' beliefs about God. “They trusted God to take care of everything, instead of taking care of anything for themselves.”
Eventually, Bennie began to see the benefits of his parents’ surrender and realized people who follow God have the opportunity to witness miracles and experience transformation that only comes by doing God’s work God’s way. “The same God is ready to do great things in your life as you surrender to Him and trust His leading in every detail,” said Bennie. “When you choose to surrender every area of your life to God, He will faithfully point out any unknown strongholds that keep Him from having full reign in your life.”
While we may know this intellectually, many struggles with putting it into practice. By sharing his personal story, Bennie gives a real-world relatable experience of the joys we experience when we live by faith. His book encourages us to ask if we will be like Matthew, who fully surrendered to following Jesus at great sacrifice. He was willing to burn bridges as a tax collector and never looked back.
Bennie does not present the journey as an easy path, but “My Father’s Business” will bring renewed excitement for the Great Commission because it challenges readers to understand their part in it. Bennie invites readers to re-examine how they do business. For many of us, we list earthly things as our priorities, such as jobs and families. But God’s priority is for us to go and make disciples. Bennie asks challenging questions about what success means with application points in each chapter to help put these principles into practice. He recognizes that it is not an easy change, but with prayer and full surrender, transformation is possible.
It’s time to line up our priorities with God’s. Bennie encourages us to live like Jesus and go after the Father’s business. “Jesus’ life was spent doing nothing but contributing to the most significant business the world has ever known...His Father’s! It took a long time,” said Bennie, “but I eventually came to appreciate and understand the importance of dedicating my life’s work to God.”
