Much planning goes into preparing for a successful Black Friday. Cash flow is carefully monitored. Credit limits are pushed to the max. Intricate strategies for timing and storage of products are worked and reworked. The stress levels are high.
Did you think I am referring to the business plans of retailers?
Ah, no.
Actually, I am talking about the plans of the average American shopper. The Thanksgiving Dinner becomes a fading mirage as the execution of a successful Black Friday shopping trip takes center stage.
Black Friday is about spending the least amount of money to gain the most amount of gifts. This is the strategy of “smart” shoppers.
Just one question. How much is God involved in your planning? The Scriptures teach that God is intimately involved in business and profit. This would include selling and buying. The goal of Black Friday savings is the equivalent of the retailer whose goal is profit. Both the seller and the buyer are attempting to get the most for their investment.
A successful Black Friday shopping trip will occur only if God wills it to be so! Failing to acknowledge the provision of God in your Black Friday plans is called evil boasting in James.
Notice these words from James 4:13-16:
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
These words of the Holy Spirit directly apply to Black Friday shoppers. Thus, your thoughts should be framed by this truth:
If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and follow our plans for shopping this Black Friday.
Planning this way has huge benefits:
You are acknowledging your total dependence upon God for all that happens this Friday and every day.
You are asking God’s blessing on your shopping.
Realizing your dependence on him will help you to reconsider the wisdom of the purchases that you make. Are your plans motivated by your will or by God’s? Are these purchases wise financial decisions?
You will be focused on the humility that comes from knowing the provision of God.
May your plans for Christmas shopping this year be blessed and wise, if the Lord wills!