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Prayer

Prayer and your workplace – 10 studies from Andrew Laird

Andrew - Profile Picture (ARN)Wondering how you can pray effectively for your workplace??? Andrew Laird from City Bible Forum (Melbourne) has prepared an excellent set of 10 studies that you can download here.

Contents
1. The goal of prayer: Hallowed be your name
2. Prayer: Speaking to our Father
3. Prayer: Enabled by the Son
4. Prayer: Empowered by the Spirit
5. Prayer: Why Bother
6. Prayer: Why pray with others
7. Prayer: For workplace friendships
8. Prayer: For your workplace living witness
9. Prayer: For the salvation of your colleagues
10. Prayer: For the flourishing of your workplace

The impact of workplace culture on prayer

In this article, Beverley Shepherd from the LICC explains how workplace culture and values impact our prayer lives. ?Understanding these four cultural drivers/beliefs will deepen our understanding of prayer and how it impacts our prayer life in unhelpful ways.
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Time is scarce:?The belief that we don’t have enough time is widespread. Once this is assumed, prioritisation against certain criteria becomes essential. Our criteria reveal our true values – often linked to success based on observable achievement. If prayer does not meet these criteria ‘finding time to pray’ becomes a perceived obstacle.

Consumerism:?In a consumer culture, everything becomes a transaction and is measured in terms of customer satisfaction. With prayer we can view ourselves as the ‘client’ and ask: ‘Do I enjoy praying?’, ‘What am I getting out of this?’, ‘Would I get a better return on my investment of time in some other activity?’ Philip Yancey in his book,?Prayer – Does It Make a Difference, notes that ‘Worship becomes a kind of transaction: I’ve given God something, so it’s God’s turn to reciprocate. Prayer as transaction rather than relationship can decline into a practice more duty than joy, an occasional and awkward exercise with little connection to life.’

Image:?In an image based culture, appearance and visibility count. We track the number of people who have visited our website, the time spent on each page, the ‘likes’ recorded. Marketing and advertising consultants help craft the most compelling image. In the world of office politics, being seen at that important meeting or speaking to a ‘key player’ is part of developing your personal ‘brand’. Effective prayer is often unseen: ‘When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you’ (Matthew 6:6). In fact, there is nothing more shattering to our carefully constructed self-image than the presence of God and the searching of the Holy Spirit.

Individualism:?In a culture of individualism, independence and self-reliance are valued. Personal interests take precedence over the needs of the group. It can manifest itself in the workplace though an absence of teamwork, inter-departmental rivalry, or a blame culture. In contrast, the model of prayer given us by Jesus (Matthew 6:9-13) contains the words ‘our’, ‘us’ and ‘we’ nine times in four short verses. To pray is to acknowledge our dependence on God and our inter-dependence with each other.

A prayer for work based on the Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,?

may my life today bring glory to your name

Give me opportunities to extend your kingdom by speaking of Christ.

Help me to do your will and work for Christ as my boss.

Thank you for providing my job and please give me what I need to do it well.

Forgive my sins and help me be patient with my colleagues.

Help me not to be shaped by the culture at work. Amen.

?Copyright: TIm Chester

A prayer of dedication on the frontline

We have come to worship God,?but must leave to continue our worship.

We have come to experience God’s presence, ?but must leave to fully experience his presence.

We have come here to appreciate God’s holiness,?but must leave so his holiness can be seen in us.

We must leave Sunday to enter Monday,?and find Monday is as full of God as Sunday.

We must leave to enter our front lines,?and we discover God is there before us.

?We will return here in joy to meditate,?on the God who has loved us?wherever we’ve been.?

(This prayer is based on a prayer from Session 4 in the Life on the Frontline DVD series from the LICC?(p.22) ?Neil Parker modified the prayer for use at Toowoomba Community Baptist Church during the “Thank God It’s Monday” sermon series, August-September 2013. ?The prayer was very well received by a number of people in the congregation as expressing their desire to serve God on their frontline.)

A Commissioning Prayer

A Commissioning Prayer

God our Father, as disciples of Jesus, we accept our commission from you to invest our lives in others.

Give these workers in your harvest the power, wisdom and courage to boldly live the?Kingdom life in all the places of your choosing.

May Jesus be seen in their lives and may they always and everywhere model the life of Christ with authenticity and great zeal.

Give them eyes to see the path of service you desire for them and ears to hear the cry of the world?s needs that you have equipped them to meet.

Father, as your Son modeled for us what it means to be a servant by washing the feet of the disciples, may they exhibit a servant attitude in all they do.

May you be their Lord, light, and guardian in the work you call them to. Grant them perseverance when tired, that they would not grow weary in doing well.

We commission them into your service,?
in Jesus? name.

Amen

From?http://www.soul-purpose.info/userfiles/file/Commissioning%20prayer.pdf

 

“Taking you soul to work” – Continuous Prayer (Chapter 19)

Taking your soul to workThis week, we complete our first cycle from Stevens and Ung’s, “Taking Your Soul to Work – overcoming the nine deadly sins of the workplace.”

We’ve looked at pride (Chapter 1) and its opposite, joy (Chapter 10). The authors conclude the cycle by suggesting a practice or discipline that will help decrease pride and increase joy – continuous prayer (Chapter 19). [Read more…] about “Taking you soul to work” – Continuous Prayer (Chapter 19)

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