The Sunday News
Itai Chipunza
BY now most people understand that God is not a God who gives money from the sky. He is a God who wants us to work. He himself worked in Genesis.
Genesis 2:2
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
So from this we know that work is a Christian principle. Any church leader who tells you that you must earn money without working definitely has not read his scriptures thoroughly. In the long run it is possible to have your investments taking care of you without the need for you to work, but initially you would have worked very hard.
What God wants then is to help you while you work so that the results are favourable to you. This is when the principle of tithing comes in, you tithe, you labour and investment is protected.
At the same time God provides more opportunities for you. This is our focus today. The opportunities. Over time I have noticed that all of us get these from God, tithers and non-tithers alike. The difference is that tithers get more and easily noticeable opportunities. But basically all of us Get opportunities from God.
Ecclesiastes 9:11
11 I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.
The first thing to note about opportunity is that it is a window given to us to make profit. This means that it is made possible for you to take advantage of your knowledge to make money from it. You could be given access to a product to buy and resell at a profit. It could be a chance to study for a couple of hours before a test.
The point is that it is when you are given chance to make extra while others seem not to see that particular chance. Take advantage of it to advance yourself in your studies. Maximise it to make the most for your business. A perfect example of taking advantage of an opportunity given during times when it is given is this month of December. Generally majority of the people are in acquisition mode in December. The majority of companies give people bonuses during this time. An opportunist would take advantage of this month to push sales as much as they can.
If you don’t already have something you sell be it a product or service, December is a month to make sure you have one. But this only lasts for a short period. It is only for the 31 days of December. After that into January people don’t spend as much anymore. Unless you sell school things or run a school, you will notice that the market generally becomes extra slow at this time of the year. Most people actually begin to fall into debt and are hunting for money lenders in order to pay school fees. When the majority of the population begins to shy away from spending, this is a chance for you again to make most of. This is when you begin to invest for the coming year because at this time your negotiation leverage is very high. If you want to buy a house, January is the best month to do so because people are in desperate need for money and you are likely to get the best price for it. A product that could normally go for $10 can be purchased for $6 or even less depending on how good your negotiation is. January is a month to invest for opportunists.
The second thing to note is that opportunities do not last forever. All opportunities have a short shelf life. You must see it while it is available and make use of it, after that it is gone and usually cannot be redeemed. Going back to our example of the months of December and January you will notice that the opportunity to make money starts around the 18th when companies have paid salaries and people living abroad have come into the country to spend with their families. After the 31st of December the opportunity is gone. The only way to extend it is by selling products desired by schools and students otherwise if you have missed it, it’s gone. The opportunity to invest is in January from around the 5th when the need for cash suddenly hits majority of the people.
This lasts up to around the 20th when money starts coming into people’s accounts in form of salaries. After that people will not take less for their valuable assets. It is your job to see opportunity. A lot of people cry out to God to say they don’t get opportunities and chance to make it, this is not true.
Time and chance happens to all of us. The difference is that some see these opportunities and others don’t. It is not God’s fault. It is yours.
Lastly, make sure you save something earned from the first window in order to make it possible to earn from better opportunities. Look at the world around you, the rich seem to be getting richer and the poor seem to be getting poorer. This is because of two different understanding of buying and selling. It is important to have savings. Save money to make more opportunities available. Again let’s use our months of December and January as an example. If from the previous year counting from February to November you did not save a single cent, you will not have money to buy products for resale in December. That is an opportunity lost. If in December you did not save what you earned, when January comes, you too will be in town looking for moneylenders.
Remember, time and chance happen to all men. See them, use them and do it until you have mastered the art of using opportunities to advance yourself.
