Spice Up Your Networking

Colossians 4
⁵ Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. ⁶ Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.
  
As I was reading in Colossians 4, I was pondering verses five and six.  "Conduct yourself with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity."  This is great networking tip!  When I was a State Farm agent, many asked me how I would have time to run a business, sell insurance and financial services, and be a single mom to three in a town I wasn't familiar with.  I said, simple, it's about just living life and sharing what you do with those you  meet, listening for the needs they have, and trying to offer a product or service during those moments.  

While that was insurance, it was work for the Kingdom.  I didn't realize it.  But helping people recover from unexpected loss or from what Satan is continually trying to destroy;  that is Kingdom work.  It's about restoration.  Now with a larger understanding of how Kingdom work translates to the workplace, it is so exciting to see how God uses our businesses to do the work of the Kingdom.  

There is also another opportunity that the Scripture points to.  That is our opportunity to share what God has done for us.  The next verse, "Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person."  I hung on this phrase "with grace", while some translations interpret that to mean gracious, I think it is bigger.  It's communicating what God has done through Jesus through His finished work on the cross.  That is where the salt comes in.  His sacrifice, his labor of love, has so many features and benefits (still speaking sales), that's what we need to share.  The finished work of the cross brings freedom, it brings salvation, it brings purpose, it brings joy, it brings peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and love.  Our speech regardless of what are calling is should be seasoned with all these amazing things.  It should be so attractive that it draws people in to want to know more.

Life is so busy, how do I do this?  The scripture did not leave us hanging, but we have to back up to see it.

Colossians 4
² Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; ³ praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; ⁴ that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.

It's the same as how I answered my critics when it came to being a State Farm agent.  You do life and you be watchful for every interaction, every opportunity.  We pray and we stay focused on what God is doing around us. We get to know the Father so well, we see His work, He will be faithful to prompt us, and He will provide for us as we make the most of every opportunity.  Those opportunities may look like sharing how your business or work can help (remember bringing solutions to life's problems is how God shows love to His people), it might be what God is doing or has done in your family, and it may be what God is or has done in your personal life.  Being present or in the moment of what God is doing is good for business and it's good for Kingdom.

For more on MERGE - visit www.MERGEBusiness.com
Like us on Facebook - MERGE Community
Follow us on twitter @MERGEmyLife