How to Trust God’s Plan For Your Business Instead of Yours

Hey Friend!

Today, I am sharing an interview I did on my former client and dear friend, Brooke Jefferson’s Book More Clients Photography Podcast. It’s so incredible to see Brooke flourish in her own business, and most importantly, flourish in her faith. Brooke asked me to come on her show to talk about what it means to partner your faith with your business and how to trust God’s plan. We ended up having what I felt was a truly anointed conversation about not letting your feelings and the earthly ways of doing business lead you away from God’s path. 

* This post contains affiliate links. This means that I get a percentage of sales at no additional cost to you.

Do You Trust God’s Plan for Your Business or Your Own?

For those of you who don’t know me well (yet), let’s start with a quick introduction! Then we’ll get into the juice chat about how to trust God’s plan.

Who Is Stefanie Gass and What Does She Help People Do?

Stef: I am a business coach who is really focused on faith first. What I do is help women get clear on their calling so they can start an online business God’s way. I help them figure out what their thing is; what the vocational call on their life is. Partnered with spiritual giftings, experience,  trials, and triumphs to culminate in one big thing in life that God is calling them to do and be.

When we figure that out, we have two things:

• Purpose – to glorify God with our gifts
• Calling – to go do it well in the way in which we were crafted to do it

The next thing is monetizing with courses or coaching. It’s so fun and surreal to see God’s handiwork, helping women be free from the ways the world has told them to build a business.
Brooke: Yes, the fruit I’ve seen in my life following your business model, your faith model, is freedom. I feel free to scale back. I’m free to show up when I want to. I feel free to cast off my worries and anxieties of tomorrow and just live in today. I think a lot of what you give that’s a byproduct of that is freedom. And I think a lot of us lack that because we don’t have that space. A lot of that comes with surrendering.

What Does It Mean to Surrender Your Business and Trust God’s Plan?

Stef: When we start out as business owners, we have this objective in our mind that we are not successful until we make “blank” amount of money or until we have “blank” number of clients. We start out focused on an end result, an unseen end result of making “x” amount of money or “x” amount of whatever. That’s what the world has spoken over us – you are successful when… That’s what I did. I built a top 1% network marketing business. I didn’t consult God; I was far from God. 

Looking back it is so clear the enemy was whispering in my ear the whole time: More! The enemy is a deceiver. He is not over here being scary and trying to show you who he is. He’s hiding behind a facade of sweet whispers. He’s whispering sweet nothings in your ear; telling you that you are doing everything ‘for them’ and it’s worth it. I believed those lies.

The Enemy Took Over and Everything Crumbled

But then the ladder got pushed over and I had a full-out breakdown because I built success at the expense of my marriage, the expense of my kids, the expense of everything. I was having anxiety attacks. The way I was treating my body was awful. Why, after having so much success, and so much money, was my life in shambles? Why was it all gone overnight? Because I built it the world’s way. I hustled until I broke down. 

At that breakdown moment, you have two choices:

• I’m going to get up and I’m going to hustle again. I’m going to get back what I lost. And you partner with the enemy again and chase after social media likes, more money, and the next rank. 

Or you can get up and say, “I’m done. I’m going to surrender the way in which I have to build. I’m going to surrender what I think is the outcome.” We think we need to know the outcome. The truth is we’ll never know the outcome; we only know the next step. Sometimes God gives you a vision, but He’s not going to tell you the whole outcome.

Choosing Jesus Is the First Step to Trust God’s Plan

I chose Jesus. I said, “Lord, I’ve been far from you. For that, I repent and I’m so sorry. I need you and I need you to be my friend, my counselor, my father, my boss, and my CEO. I need you to be everything in my life because I am failing.” 

The hardest lesson I learned is that the undoing is the recreation of your entire life. It’s the rebuilding of God’s plan for you instead of your plan for yourself. That year was surrender. It was learning to trust God’s plan. What did that mean?

• I don’t know the outcome, but I’m going to ask God for the next step.
• It meant a lot of repentance and that is not a shameful thing. 
• There was a lot of me sobbing in the bathtub, asking “Lord, what is my purpose?”
• A lot of prayers and a lot of rest, a lot of laying down the busy and a lot of heart work, a lot of Scripture and getting to know His Word.

Brooke: The last thing you said was sometimes the undoing is the recreating. I had to stop myself from crying. I’m in a season where everything has been stripped. Clean slate. We’re going to a new level. And it really is a blessing. The Bible says that: it is a gift when you go through trials. I think surrendering is such a gift, too.

How Do You Trust God’s Plan When Things Are Hard and You Feel Like Giving Up?

Stef: When you talk about obedience, you’re hearing this whisper of, “Daughter, you’re not this comfort zone, you’re not what this person says, you’re not this identity.”

Everything inside of us screams with discomfort, “No, I am. I have to be. I don’t know who I am without it.” The constant, but quiet whisper is, “Be obedient and trust me.”

The promise in Jeremiah 7:23 is clear: Obey my command and it will be well with you. Experience discomfort for a little while and afterward you will experience the fruits.

Remain Steadfast in the Lord

Don’t run back to the safety net and don’t run back to the idol. Don’t do it. Instead say, “I’m going to stand steadfast, right here, with Jesus, and take His hand and ask Him for the strength and perseverance to do through this dark and dry season you’re in. Tell Him you’re here and ready with excited anticipation for His glorious gift for you for being super obedient through this hard season”

If you are not experiencing what you think, even after the obedience, and commitment to trust God’s plan and surrender, it’s because God’s doing a work in you and you’re not ready. Guess what? Trust Him to prepare you and that season of reaping will come. You’re in a season of pruning and weeding and that is great. Be excited about the hard season because it’s coming. Be ready.

Brooke: A lot of what you just said is blind faith. You have to believe in what you can’t see. We cannot rely on our feelings. The way you feel about your business is not the reality. You have to look at the data and look back at the promise because your feelings are lying to you every single day.

The vision I’ve always had in my head for seasons like this when I can’t see how it’s all going to come together, is it’s like going through fog. You can only see just a little bit in front of you. That’s how God is with us in our business. He’s not going to give you the complete map and show you what you’ll go through for the rest of your life. Why? Because you’d never go down that path if you saw it. Even though success comes with it, so do all the hardships. They go hand-in-hand.

How Do You Keep Going When It’s Hard to Trust God’s Plan?

Brooke: For someone that is thinking this is hard, but I do want to be steadfast and stay the course, what can they practically do to hold on to that promise so tight that they don’t let go of it, even when it is hard, even when they have crickets in their inbox? How do they keep going?

Stef: Here’s the truth: You’re going to get off this podcast and think, “I’m here, Lord, find me!” And then five minutes later, something’s going to come up, or you’ll hear those crickets in the inbox, and your feelings and emotions are going to say, “You’re a failure. You can’t. Come back to your comfort zone. Come back to the idol.”

You just have to put on the Armor of God and understand that you’re not going to just get this. It’s a daily battle. We all have crap that’s going to keep coming up. So every single day, you grab your crap and you set it in front of you. Get your thoughts out of your head. Maybe you’re going to journal it; maybe you’re going to speak it. 
I set it in front of me and say, “Wow, I’m offended by that. Lord, God, please smash that offense, in the name of Jesus, and help me, to just live by Your truth today.” So I pray over the crap, then the best thing you can do is, every day, find a Scripture that will speak directly to that pile of stuff. Speak that Scripture over, and over, and over that day.

Prayer Needs to Become a Habit

Prayer needs to become a habit. You’ve got to do it until you don’t think about it anymore. This may mean every day you have notes and reminders and you’re practicing. There’s no right or wrong way to pray. The more you do it, the more comfortable you’ll become, and the more audacious you’ll become. Start seeking the Lord in everything. On a daily basis. This is the only way you’ll be able to keep going through the whispers of the Enemy and trust God’s plan.

On a monthly basis, give yourself an hour to do a full inventory of your heart. Get out a sheet of paper and go into a prayer closet or any space to be alone with the Lord. I write:

• What’s upsetting me?
• What’s hard for me right now?
• What’s weighing on me?
• Where am I hurting?
• Who am I not forgiving?
• Where do I feel triggered?
• Where do I feel unseen?
• What hurt me this month?
• What’s hurting my heart?
• What fight did I have with my husband?
• Where do I feel like I’m falling short?
• Where’s my guilt?

Brooke: You also mentioned perspective. Sometimes, that’s all God wants to do in you: show you a different perspective. A lot of times, you just need a fresh perspective. Sometimes you get through a mentor, sometimes through your Bible, sometimes through a song. 

Trust God’s Plan and Surrender to His Purpose for Your Business

Stef: There’s no right or wrong way to get close to God. One of the best things you can do is say, “God, show me how to grow closer to you.” I promise you, He has every answer. He’s just waiting for your ask. Maybe you’re not a Bible person, maybe you’re a worship person, put worship music on and sit in that. There’s truly no right or wrong. It all comes back to learning how to trust God’s plan and surrender.
You are walking by blind faith letting Him lead. I promise you, it is so worth it. It’s worth the hard stuff that comes with it. Being on God’s path is going to be harder on you than being on the twisty path of the world, but the outcome is more fruitful. When you trust God’s plan for you, the outcome is better. The outcome is bigger. The outcome is more amazing. You are going to feel fulfilled and whole. You’re going to feel so different when you’re walking with Him.

I hope you enjoyed reading this interview I had with Brooke! We got into some deep conversations about walking with God in our business journeys. It’s not always easy, but staying partnered with God is the best way to ensure you are supported and on the right path!

If you need someone else to walk alongside you as you learn to trust God’s plan and uncover the calling he has for your life, I encourage you to join Clarify Your Calling. This course will help get you rooted in God’s calling and purpose for your business.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE PODCAST

Before you go, be sure to watch the free workshop!

This free workshop is for you if you want to grow an online business in less time.

It will teach you how to explode your audience without the social media hustle, make consistent sales using a podcast, and plan, record, and launch a podcast with ease!

RELATED EPISODES:

Top Paper Planning Strategies for a Successful Daily Schedule With Polly Payne of Horacio Printing

Is Your Business Built on Lies? How to Identify and Replace WORLDLY LIES with GODLY TRUTHS – Truth Seeker Series Pt. 2

Patience Is a Virtue: Learning to Trust God When Building Your Business

Struggling to Trust God? 4 Bible Life Lessons From Proverbs

5 Bible Verses About Trusting God’s Direction and Growing in Your Faith

Join our Facebook Community!

Online Business for Christian Women with Stefanie Gass