Breaking The Mold Before it Breaks You - Key #3 - How to Pray for Work

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The Key of PRAYER

Certainly there are many kinds of effective prayer and thousands of books have been written on the subject. We all know that prayer is vital to living the Christian life, but how does one pray effectively at work?

This may come as a shock to you, but in this context we are primarily discussing keys to the marketplace, not keys to church growth, your devotional life or keys to a better marriage. What does effective prayer look like in the marketplace? How is it different from other kinds of prayer you may have learned?

Prayer at Work

For one thing, prayer in the marketplace is functional and many times necessary while you are in action. Many situations you encounter in the business world demand quick and accurate response. It is not possible for most of us to tell everyone that we will be back in thirty minutes every time a key decision comes our way.

How can you really pray continually in a way that is effective? Old school dualistic thinking wants you to believe that you need to check in and out of the spiritual realm, but this is not the case. As a ‘hip’ pastor and business person I used to think I was leading an integrated life until God showed me otherwise. This is something you need to work at.

To pray effectively, you need to understand that God places importance on your work. Otherwise, you won’t be able to pray about proposals being accepted, business deals coming together, the resolution of challenging situations with co-workers and the release of God-ideas, for example. Here are five realities you will experience when putting the Key of Prayer to work in the Marketplace.

1. Divine Perception - Sometimes you get so involved in a situation, you begin to lose your ability to see things objectively. This happens all the time, especially with people, processes and projects you have become overly familiar with or worked intensely on. Once you lose the proper perspective, it is difficult to get it back again, often because the loss perspective is not evident to you. This generally happens incrementally over time. However, prayer concerning a matter, can begin to lift you above the circumstance to a higher vantage point, a divine view, and restore a balanced outlook.

God will not absolutely direct you concerning every decision you need to make. Should I wear the blue sock or the green socks? Sometimes you need to act on the best wisdom you have. However, once you begin to see a matter the way God sees it, wise, strategic decisions will follow.

2. Answers, Instructions & Resolve (yes this is three for one.)-Once you have prayed regarding a situation, sometimes you sense a direction from God. Resolve follows. Often direction is just the start of the process of progress, knowing which way to head with a decision, person or situation. Recently, I was facing a major situation involving one of the communities I am helping to develop. I prayed about it and sensed a direction from God. It wasn’t going to be easy or popular. In fact, in some ways moving in this direction was a bit awkward and not something I would have been sure about or possibly even thought of had I not prayed. But I did pray and I was reasonably sure, so that created enough resolve to move forward despite inevitable opposition. Had it merely been something I had thought up, I might have faltered during the time of resistance. As usual with divine insight, in the end, this decision is proving significantly beneficial.

3. Healthy Dependence-It is easy to get so busy working that you become effectively in-dependent from God, increasingly self-reliant in your work life. Consistently lifting working situations up to Him, on the other hand, keeps you from depending on your own effort and keeps you dependent on Him. Prayer is in part an act of dependence. Dependence goes hand in hand with humility and humility is precious if you want the wind of God to be at your back and not in your face.

4. Help- There are countless numbers of situations in the marketplace where you need more than a better outlook, an idea, resolve or a direction, you need HELP. Thankfully God delights in helping His children just like a natural parent delights helping one of their children, but more so. If you are like me, sometimes you have messed things up so badly that you can’t possibly figure out what to do and you are overwhelmed. Other times it would just be nice to have an extra push to get you over the hump in a situation. Help is on the way once you talk things over with God.

5. Moving into a Productive Groove “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established”. ESV Prov 16:3. This is a wonderful promise that every marketplace believer should lay hold of. If it is worth doing, it is worth committing to the Lord. There is much misunderstanding among Christians concerning the role of planning and working. For the moment, let me simply say this is an area for significant growth. Find the way through prayer to commit what you do to the Lord and cooperate with Him to help you establish it.

Blessings to you, your family & upon your endeavors,

Rick for Ti-MC