Pray More and Pray More Intentionally

by Dave Kahle

 

How do I Integrate my Christian faith with day-to-day business practices?

This is a question almost every Christian professional and businessperson considers regularly. The answer isn’t simple, and it varies from time to time and place to place.

The Christian life is a journey and we focus one step at a time. It’s like walking through a forest at night, with just a small flashlight to light your way. You can’t see more than a few feet ahead, and the light illuminates only the next few steps.

That analogy provides us a perspective on the question. The answer to the question today may be different than it will be just a bit down the road. Because our circumstances vary, the opportunities and relationships that we have today will be different than what we encounter further down the path. What’s important is that you keep asking the question. Today’s answer is just today’s answer, and not necessarily a lifetime prescription.

Having said that, there is a body of knowledge about some principles and practices that extend beyond the specific details of our current situation. These are principles and practices that apply regardless of the circumstances.

In this post, we’re going to drill deeper into one such principle: Pray more and pray more intentionally. In other words, intentionally add depth and breadth to your prayer practices.

First, let’s establish some Biblical principles upon which this practice is based:

1. We are commanded to pray for everything

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the Peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6  

Does “everything” include our careers and businesses and the multitude of decisions we must make, the relationships which occupy us, and the never-ending list of tasks to be accomplished? Of course. “Everything” means just that.

There is a horribly debilitating idea that is, unfortunately, quite commonly held; that God doesn’t want us to pray for our careers and businesses. This mistaken mindset reserves our prayers for our families and sanctioned “church work.” It is okay to pray for a missionary your church supports, for example, but a bit gauche to pray for that big sale on which you are working. You can pray that you find a new youth pastor, but not that you find a new administrative assistant.

Those ideas must be some of Satan’s greatest lies. By getting Christian businesspeople to believe them, he has successfully removed a major sphere of activity from being God-influenced. He must congratulate himself every time he sees someone who could be praying about a business issue and doesn’t.

Prayer is how we invite God into aspects of our lives, and the marketplace is one of those major pieces. If Christian people are to be a light in a dark world, the marketplace represents a huge slice of that darkness crying out for the moderating and illuminating presence of Christians unafraid to ask God’s intervention.

2. Prayer brings peace

Notice, the impact of our prayers in the passage quoted above. “And the Peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

When we look at our lives, there are few areas which bring more anxiety, more worry and more dread than the marketplace. In the ebb and flow of countless business decisions, with consequences impacting hordes of others, our activity in the marketplace calls out for peace like no other. The source of that peace is not success, but relationship with God through prayer.

3. Prayer promotes a closer relationship with God

As we bring Him our hopes, our opportunities, our challenges and our decisions, we naturally grow closer to Him. We hear from Him and we see Him operate in our lives. Our work in the marketplace is a perfect venue for this constant interaction with God. Every day presents a swirling stream of decisions clamoring for our attention. As Richard Swensen said in the book Margin, “we must now deal with more things per person than at any other time in history.” More things per person means a never-ending set of concerns and requests to bring to God. It is as if God created our turbulent times just for the purpose of bringing us closer to him through prayer.

Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. John 16:23

4. Prayer is a powerful way to bring glory to God without sermonizing or turning people off.

When you tell someone you will pray for them, or better yet offer to pray with them, you acknowledge a personal God’s involvement in your life in a way which is non-obtrusive and non-threatening. It doesn’t offend anyone, nor force your beliefs on anyone else. Prayer in the marketplace, then, is one of the most powerful evangelistic devices.

If you were to commit to “praying for everything” in the marketplace what would that look like?

We are all at different places in our journey to bring God into our marketplace lives. So, it is difficult to prescribe a set of practices that are the final definition of prayer in the marketplace. Having said that, we can paint a picture of what the ideal situation would be.

If you were to fully implement this practice, you’d:

• Invest in an annual personal retreat in which you methodically prayed over every aspect of your business or career for the year.
• Pray before every planning session, personal or business, to invite the Holy Spirit into the planning process.
• Pray before and after every major event to invite Him to do His will through this event.
• Pray before and after every encounter with people – employees, co-workers, customers, and vendors.
• Seek opportunities to pray for and with people.
• Pray methodically for all the people with whom you interact.
• Pray for business and career success, profitability, excellence and ever-growing impact.

The specific iteration of each of these practices will vary from person to person and situation to situation. One of the members of my Christian Business Impact Groups, for example, prays for each of the employees in his company. He keeps index cards for each, notes some personal things about them, and records his prayers for them. He prays through those cards every Friday.

You may have some unique expressions of what it means to pray in the marketplace. Feel free to connect with me to share yours.

  

This article is adapted from a post first published on the Biblical Business blog here and reproduced with kind permission from the author.

Dave Kahle has been a Bible teacher, elder, house church leader, short-term missionary and Christian executive roundtable leader. For 30 years, he has been an authority on sales and sales systems, having spoken in 47 states and eleven countries. He has authored 13 books, including The Good Book on Business. Sign up for his weekly messages here.

More from Dave at: www.davekahle.com and www.thebiblicalbusiness.com.

 

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