As sales professionals and leaders, we can all use a little encouragement during the tough times. As a Christian, I will often look for encouragement in scripture. I’ll admit sometimes I find scripture difficult to understand. Philippians 4:13 is one of those verses for me. On the surface it seems straight forward, but there seems to be more to it. If you’ve seen encouraging Biblical scripture printed on plaques, photos and artwork, you’ve probably seen Philippians 4:13 before.
While I’m not a pastor and I don’t play one on TV, I do enjoy reading commentary and insights from amazing theologians like John Piper and C.S. Lewis. After digging deeper into this letter from the apostle Paul to the church at Philippi ~ 61 A.D., I’ve found this encouraging verse tells us that whatever difficulty or challenge we walk through, whether we win or lose, we can take comfort and gain strength knowing that God is with us. This verse doesn’t say that God will guarantee you win your next sales proposal nor does it guarantee you can accomplish anything you attempt. If we misinterpret this passage in that way, then we’ve just reduced God to a genie in a bottle!
As a sales professional, you’re not going to win them all. Sometimes, the days are extremely tough. Here are three comforting thoughts I take from this verse:
1. He guarantees He will be with you
It’s comforting to know that even when we’re going through the absolute worst sales drought of our career, we can take comfort and find strength through Him. This passage doesn’t grant us a wish or grant us superpowers to overcome anything we attempt. This is God’s promise to be with us no matter what… and that’s enough.
2. God isn’t just in a church building on Sunday morning
Even if we’re mowing the grass, cleaning the kitchen, waiting in line for coffee, doing homework, shopping for groceries, or delivering our next sales proposal, we can do all these things with joy and strength through Him. Everything we do, we can do through Him. When we do everything in a way that honors God’s teachings, we will find strength.
3. God’s plan, God’s glory, He’s with you
This verse is also a great reminder that God has a purpose for our lives. This doesn’t mean our life is without choice. We can choose how to live out our purpose and whether or not we even accept our purpose. In the Bible God often used the most unlikely of characters to achieve amazing results. Because of that, the only explanation for the amazing achievement was that God played a role in it. His purpose, His glory, He’s with you.
In the book of Job we hear a story of a man who loses everything. His life turned South in a major way when he lost his home, family, wealth, and health. This would definitely not be Job’s chosen plan, but now he finds himself going through this ordeal. The amazing thing is that Job continues to praise God and he finds strength through Him. Job 42:2 is a great sister verse to Philippians 4:13 because Job reminds us that God gets the credit for being able to do all things, not us.
Every salesperson experiences a career slump at times. My prayer is that you find your encouragement and strength in Him. Stay strong.
In the good times and the bad,
Russ
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