Taking It to Work:
I have heard it over and over again, and I have experienced the good of it over and over again. We all have at one time or another. The importance of starting out your day in communion with God really can’t be understated. Almost every Godly person that I have ever met, and many spiritual giants I haven’t met, all say the same thing – we need to start each day with prayer. I know from personal experience how much better the day goes if we do start it out with His counsel.
Things are a little bit more relaxed now, but there was a time when my schedule was packed back-to-back with meetings. Every morning I would pull-up my schedule and pray over every one of my meetings. I’d look down the list of attendees, and maybe pray for some of the key players. If the decisions to be made in some of those meetings were going to be critical or difficult, I would pray in those early hours that His best and highest would come out of those meetings. I’d pray over design issues, personnel placement, production schedules, and after receiving those already ridiculous Worker’s Comp premiums, I’d pray for safety on the floor. Sales calls, vendor visits… with all that can go sideways in the workplace, there was plenty to lay at the Lord’s feet. Sometimes I’d pray for an hour or more, and much of that time was listening, trying to hear His voice and direction.
The odd thing though, as much as I could see the benefit and results of those prayers, I would fall out of the habit. Not because I thought prayer wasn’t important or effective, but because getting to all those things seemed more urgent, and prayer was pushed off for lack of time; that’s a mistake many of us routinely make.
C. S. Lewis said it best, βIt comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back…”, He says that so we are sure to make room for His voice and guidance. If we don’t shove them back, and make time for that prayer, those wild animals will shove us around all day.
I can tell you, there is a strength in walking into some of those high-stakes meetings, knowing that I had brought them before the Lord already that morning. I made decisions knowing He was already part of it, and investments knowing I already asked for His wisdom. And most of all, I had a confidence that the many things that were out of my hands, were firmly in His, because I put them there.
You’ve heard it before – prayer is a privilege, and to use the power of prayer in the workplace, is likely one of God’s most untapped resources. I pray it won’t be one of yours, as His Word works in you, today.
Psalm 143:8 (ESV) – Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
Mark 1:35 (ESV) – And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
Psalm 88:13 (ESV) – But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Listening to the Holy Spirit:
I speak to those who are lost. Even those who call Me Lord continue on a faulted path. For many – a circle, repeating again the tried and false way. You have been redeemed for eternity, but in darkness remain for fear of light. Wake with Me, that you would know your way. I speak to My children. Do you not hear? It is for the noise of the daylight. Arise and seek My face. My counsel awaits those who call, approaching humbly. I hear not the haughty prayer, but of the gentle heart bring. Lift your waking hours to He who multiplies in scarcity. Lift your soul to He who gives and guides. The plans of a man are short for his needs. My counsel brings truth and comfort, even in the storm. First come, and do not trade that place for another. There is no other God, and there is no deed incredible that you would, with true knowledge, trade. Meet me in your rising hour, that those beyond would know abundance.
