Profit-making is biblical. God wants us to make a profit in everything we do, make a profit, to be fruitful, and to multiply. He does not want us to remain stagnant but to move forward. He wants us to increase in all areas of our lives including business life. He blessed the farm of Abel and the herd of Cain, He blessed the herd of Abraham and Lot. He blessed Job and made him wealthy.
God has endowed us with skills and insights for us to make profits. Deuteronomy 8:18 confirms that God gives us the power to make wealth. Also making a profit requires diligence, skillfulness, and competence. Proverbs 12:27 tells us that hard work leads to profit while laziness leads to poverty. The diligent man will eat from his labor but the lazy will not be able to feed on whatever he does.
God blesses us with different kinds of skills, talents, spiritual gifts, and insights to do many things that can make life better for us. We must make efforts to discover the portions of God’s deposits in our lives. We must use them to bring profit to our lives and into the kingdom of God.
People Who Made Profits in the Bible
Isaac: Isaac was a farmer. There was a famine in the land and Isaac went to Gerar. God told him to stay in that land. He reaped a hundredfold of the crops he planted. He was able to reap a hundredfold because God blessed him. He became rich until his wealth grew to become became very wealthy. He had many crops, flocks, herds, and servants so much that the Philistines began to envy him Genesis 26:14.
Jacob: Jacob was a herdsman. He took care of Laban’s flocks. Laban had little flocks before Jacob began to care for his flocks. After twenty years, the Lord had greatly blessed Laban because of Jacob. Laban testified that God had blessed him because of Jacob. Jacob knew that God blessed Laban because of him. Jacob worked hard to ensure there was an increase in Laban’s flocks. God prospered in the work of Jacob (Genesis 30:27-30).
Joseph: Joseph was a young man. He was later sold to Potiphar who was the captain of the guards in the court of Pharaoh. God was with Joseph in the house of Potiphar. Everything Joseph did in the house of Potiphar was prosperous. All the properties of Potiphar began to increase right from the day Joseph began to live with him. Potiphar noticed that God was with Joseph so he made him the head of his entire household. (Genesis 39:1-5).
The widow of the prophet: The widow of a prophet cried to Elisha. Her husband owed some money before he died. She could not pay the money and the creditor wanted to take her two sons away. Elisha asked the woman if she had anything at home. She told Elisha that she had nothing except a small jar of oil. The prophet told her to go and borrow jars of oil from all her neighbors. She was told to borrow plenty of jars. The woman borrowed many jars. She locked herself and her sons inside and began to pour the oil until all the jars were full. When all the jars were filled up, the oil stopped flowing. She was told to sell the oil by the prophet. She should use the money to pay all her debts and live on the remaining. This implies she should use the remaining money to start a profit-making business. (2 Kings 4:1-7).
Peter: Peter was a fisherman. He was a skillful and professional fisherman. He had gone fishing all through the night. He could not catch a single fish. Jesus came to use his boat in the morning to teach people. After the teaching, Jesus told Peter to spread his net into the water. Peter told Him how they had toiled all through the night without catching any fish. He said he would launch into the water because of the Word of Jesus. When they let down the net, they caught a large number of fish that their nets began to break. (Luke 5:1-7).
Making a profit goes beyond the efforts of man. Man must play his part. He must be diligent, skillful, competent, disciplined, determined, focused, and prayerful. Also, he must trust God to bless him with abundant profit in his business or trading. When we trust God for profit-making, God comes down to assist us.
- God will supply sunshine and rainfall at the right times/seasons.
- He will bless us abundantly without adding sorrow.
- He will bring increase and multiplication to our business.
- He will set us free from debts and make us live a happy life.
- He will favor us beyond measure.
Profit-Making Strategies
Bible Passage: Matthew 25:15-30
Peter and Paul are twins. They agreed to assist their parents with some money. So, they prayed to God. Peter decided to sell pencils and pens. Paul decided to sell sweets and biscuits. God blessed their sales. Likewise, God blesses all human beings with different ideas, insights, skills, talents, and spiritual gifts. We must allow Him to lead us to make the right decisions in our choice of profit-making ideas.
Kinds of Wealth Creation to Make Profits
Buying and selling: Trading is an act of buying and selling goods and services. Little children can engage in small-scale and petty trading with small money/capital. Educational materials and edible objects are very profitable for children. Some of the things that children can buy and sell include books, jotters, pencils, pens, markers, crayons, rulers, erasers, socks, sachet water, table water, and many more.
Creating things: Little children can make things and sell them. A few of the things children can make include liquid soap, chin-chin, shoe polish, fruit juices, mobile applications, and artwork.
Writing and publishing of books: Little children can become writers and publishers. They can write and publish poems, novels, dramas, jokes, stories, information, news, articles, and books. The publications can be made in soft copies and hard copies. The softcopies can be sold as e-publications on the internet via blogs, websites, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, and YouTube through the help of their parents or elderly ones. Hard copies are printed on paper for people to buy.
Arts and crafts: Little children can learn simple arts and crafts. They can make beads. Beads are worn on the necks, wrists, and ankles. They can make simple hats, hand bands, homemade body and hair creams, small frames and weave small mats.
Library business: Little children can go into the library business. They can create either physical libraries, e-libraries, or mobile application libraries.
Conclusion
God wants us to make a profit. He does not want us to fail in our businesses. He knows that we cannot make a profit on our own, thus, He wants us to depend on Him for our profit making. With God, we can make a lasting profit but without Him, we cannot make a profit that will last. We must depend on God who gives us the power to make wealth and the grace to enjoy it.
