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MOODY PUBLISHERS
CHICAGO
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© 2010 by
KARIA BANKS BUNTING

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971,
1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by per-
mission. (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version.
Scripture quotations marked THE MESSAGE are from The Message, copy-
right © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of Nav-
Press Publishing Group.

Edited by Kathryn Hall

Interior design: Ragont Design
Cover design: Barb Fisher, LeVan Fisher Design
Cover photo and illustrations: © Swell Media/UpperCut/Getty Images and
Chen Ping Hung/Shutterstock
Author photo: Jeremy Sharp photography

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bunting, Karia Banks.

Daddy's delight : embracing your divine design / Karia Banks Bunting.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 978-0-8024-3688-7
1. Christian women—Religious life. I. Title.
BV4527.B854 2010
248.8'43—dc22
2010001722

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Printed in the United States of America.

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EXCERPT FROM

Chapter
9
Minding
Your Business:
The Career of a
Biblical Woman

DRIVE A HARD BARGAIN

There was a time in the Old Testament that God was preparing
to make His children successful. At this particular time, He defined the
terms of the deal He had on the table. But, once again, the children
of Israel failed to uphold their end of the bargain. Although they were
given sufficient warning about how to conduct themselves in times of
plenty, they were prone to lose their blessing if they did not meet
God’s expectations.
When God blesses you, be prepared to maintain your blessing by
keeping God’s commandments. You will need to study His Word and
get to know it personally and follow it closely so that you will know
what pleases Him and what does not. God deserves your reverence and
a strong commitment to Him; do not forget to honor Him with a
heart of thanksgiving. Remember to worship God faithfully and keep
Him ever before you. Be willing and determined to do all that He
requires of you. In business terms, be ready to drive a hard bargain.
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6 Daddy’s Delight

Here’s the deal:

After a meal, satisfied, bless God, your God, for the good land he has
given you.
Make sure you don’t forget God, your God, by not keeping his com-
mandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today.
Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses
and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more
money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—
make sure you don’t become so full of yourself and your things that
you forget God, your God, the God who delivered you from Egyptian
slavery; the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilder-
ness, those desolate, arid badlands crawling with fiery snakes and
scorpions; the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock; the
God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your
ancestors had never heard of, in order to give you a taste of the hard
life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days
ahead of you.
If you start thinking to yourselves, “I did all this. And all by myself.
I’m rich. It’s all mine!”—well, think again. Remember that God, your
God, gave you the strength to produce all this wealth so as to confirm
the covenant that he promised to your ancestors—as it is today. If you
forget, forget God, your God, and start taking up with other gods,
serving and worshiping them, I’m on record right now as giving you
firm warning: that will be the end of you; I mean it—destruction.
You’ll go to your doom—the same as the nations God is destroying
before you; doom because you wouldn’t obey the Voice of God, your
God. (Deuteronomy 8:10–20 THE MESSAGE)

This passage begins with Moses addressing God’s people as a

means to motivate them to recommit themselves to God. They were
about to enter the land that God had promised them. It was going to
be a good experience all the way around because God’s blessings are
always excellent. On the way to their blessing, these people had been
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Minding Your Business: The Career of a Biblical Woman 7

through a long and terrible wilderness experience. However, God had

been with them, taking care of them and protecting them throughout
the entire journey.
As God’s spokesman, Moses was their leader. He commanded the
people to, “Bless God, your God, for the good land he has given you”
(verse 10). He said to the children of Israel what I hear teenagers
saying to each other, “You’d better recognize.” Even though they had
fought the battle, they didn’t have to win; it was God who allowed
them to prevail. Even though He was giving them something very
significant, it didn’t have to remain their possession.
After such a long and arduous sojourn, Moses knew the people
well. He was extremely familiar with their ways and knew that they
were very capable of being ungrateful. As a result, he felt compelled
to issue a powerful warning. He wanted them to remember that God
was the source of their blessings. They were not sufficient within
themselves, and he had to reinforce that fact. God deserved to be
continually acknowledged for His goodness; otherwise, the people
would run the risk of being severely reprimanded. Without this admo-
nition, Moses knew that it was possible for the children of Israel, once
they were successful, to forget the Lord their God. He would not
quit being their God, but they could quit acting like He is God.
This happens to successful people all the time. Consider this sce-
nario. The vice president of human resources that you met at last
week’s power lunch calls you for a Sunday morning golf game. She
wants you to fill out the foursome. How often does that happen? You
wouldn’t want to offend her. But you’ll be at church next week. One
week won’t hurt. The issue is not whether you can play golf on Sunday.
The issue is not even missing a service. The issue is who comes first:
you, your new friend, or God? Your decision is an issue of priorities.
You will invest your time where you expect a reward.
Or try this one. Your friend is having a big barbeque on Sunday
afternoon. She asked you to come over and help her get ready. She has
invited absolutely everybody.You can skip worship today, can’t you? Last
week it was raining and you slept in. One more week won’t hurt. Right?
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8 Daddy’s Delight

Once you have reached a level of success in your “promised land,”

you have more choices because you have more resources to work with.
It becomes all too easy to gravitate toward instant gratification. But, self-
indulgence can put you in the danger zone. In his list of instructions,
Moses put it this way, “Make sure you don’t become so full of yourself and
your things that you forget God, your God.” He used the proper noun for
God in this passage. It must be known that this God is a specific God.
He has a name. His name is YHWH. His name is not money. His name
is not power. His name is not fame, nor success. His name is not even
your name. His name is YHWH, and He is your God.
Moses told them not to substitute their God for any other god.
They needed to beware, because the substitution can happen so very
subtly—one decision at a time.
If you have already “arrived,” it’s never too late to take a lesson from
the wisdom of God’s Word. Anyone receiving abundance from God
can learn a lot from what Moses had to say. Many times the things we
go through in our own journey through life are difficult and chal-
lenging. We have to make a lot of sacrifices along the way. Yet, we have
faith in God that He is leading us somewhere. And in His timing, we
will arrive at our destination in God.
The problem occurs when we take possession of the good things
we have and start acting like we deserve to finally put ourselves first
because of all that it took to get where we are. But the bottom line is,
if your time comes, you have to keep God at the top of your list of pri-
orities. This attitude and its subsequent actions will please God and
keep you out of trouble.