Hustle or Align? It’s one or the other but it can’t be both.
Entrepreneurs, listen to me.
We’ve been lied to and it’s been packaged up and called – “Hustle”
After reading the below scriptures, I nearly fell out of my chair. Every word creates an alignment of peace if we stop ‘hustling’ long enough to really hear it.
“If you bow low (Jennifer’s interpretation: get quiet and seek Him) in God’s awesome presence, He will eventually exalt you as you leave the timing in His hands. Pour out all your worries and stress upon Him and leave them there, for He always tenderly cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:6-7 TPT
https://www.bible.com/1849/1pe.5.6-7.tpt
The whole hustle mentality removes God from the success equation. It does NOT “leave the timing in His hands.”
Don’t get me wrong, we can’t just sit still, do nothing and expect God to make a magic success of us. God can’t turn a parked car. He needs us to be moving forward. But in that motion (which is action on our part), He can make things happen. Hustle has come to mean that it’s ALL UP TO US. It’s the world’s lie that we control timing! And we DON’T! We can’t. It’s not possible.
As Christian entrepreneurs, God has our back. He places the desires in our hearts and if He places them there to fulfill HIS purpose, won’t he also work through us to completion? Our job is to slow down our minds and our hustle long enough to hear his voice, to get ALIGNED with Him. To TRUST His timing. It’s our job to ‘bow low in God’s awesome presence’, read scripture and seek to clearly hear His voice. Verse 7 above clearly states that we are to pour out ALL of our worries and stress upon him AND LEAVE THEM THERE.
Let’s examine a really important piece of verse 7, shall we? The very end, it says ‘for He always tenderly cares for you.’
ALWAYS……
This brings tears to my eyes.
Who does that ?!?!?
Only our heavenly Father.
He’s the ONLY one who can ‘ALWAYS’. He’s the only one who has the ability to ‘ALWAYS’.
Definition of ‘always’: at all times; on all occasions
No human can ‘always’. We flounder, we fail, we fall, we fuss. But not God.
‘Always’ is His jam…. ‘Always’ is His ‘thing’.
Now pair that with what the scripture says He ‘always’ does……
TENDERLY CARES…….
He always (at all times; on all occasions) tenderly (with gentleness, kindness and affection) cares for you. What?!?!?!
Again….the tears flowing here.
Tenderly….always.
That combination is LIFE GIVING!
He not only ‘always’ cares for us on all occasions, but He “tenderly” cares for us on all occasions.
He doesn’t check-out of our lives when we are in the midst of burn out or boil over or break down. He tenderly cares for us at all times, on all occasions.
Now my entrepreneurial friends, let’s take this back to the whole hustle issue. If you hustle all of the time, where does He fit into the equation? How do WE combine “waiting for His timing” into a ‘hustle’ mindset where we falsely believe WE control timing? The two can’t co-exist.
We’ve believed the “hustle” philosophy (LIE) that has been fed to us. And here’s another piece we can miss from that scripture. God will EXALT US if we leave the timing in HIS HANDS.
WAIT!
What?
Rewind…..
“If you bow low in God’s awesome presence, He will eventually exalt you as you leave the timing in His hands.”
1 Peter 5:6 TPT
https://www.bible.com/1849/1pe.5.6-7.tpt
Exalt means to hold someone in very high regard; think or speak very highly of, raise to a higher rank or a position of greater power, make noble in character; dignify.
So, if we WAIT on HIS timing, he will ‘exalt’ us.
The God of the universe will:
Hold ME in high regard?
Speak very highly of ME?
Raise ME to a higher rank or position of power?
Make ME noble in character……..
So if that’s the case and I HUSTLE and ignore God’s timing, the opposite of exalt happens. Or even worse, NOTHING happens at all because I’m out of God’s timing.
Ummmmm, no thank you!
So, what’s it going to be for me? Am I gonna HUSTLE or am I going to ALIGN myself with God’s timing and trust Him and allow him to tenderly take care of me? Answer: I’m gonna do my very best to keep moving forward so he can turn me in the direction He needs me to go. I will work towards stepping away from the ‘hustle’ mindset the world bombards me with every day. Do I believe I have the free will to step outside His timing? Yes, I do. I also believe that in my seeking of Him and His divine purpose for my life that I can RE-align with it too. And since he ALWAYS tenderly cares for me, even if I screw up, as long as I veer back to the path He has for me, I can get back into His timing and He will Exalt me.
Which sounds better to you? Hustle or Align?
Very Humbly Yours,
Jennifer Edwards