How My Day Job Improved My Relationship With God

For most of us there is gap between what happens at work and our religious lifestyle, either for convenience of avoiding the topic or simply a lack of common ground. So you might find it hard to believe that things learned at my day job (product development) have brought me closer to God. 

What I've learned and experienced in taking work skills and applying to my relationship with God is of value to anyone seeking a change in their life.

The Business of Prayer

If you are like me, you spend a lot of time at work making plans, proposals, coordinating, resourcing, reporting and reviewing actions. You are probably great at having productive meetings that result in real progress. And those meetings are probably nothing like your prayers.

Too often our conversations with God range from mumbles before meals and familiar rehearsings at bedtime, to panicked pleas, or the occasional gripe session. Perhaps your communication with the CEO (Celestial Executive Officer) is not producing the kind of personal changes you are seeking.

God is your boss. With that in mind you can apply your management skills in a way that improves your prayers, with access to greater life-transforming power.

For corporate citizens hoping become celestial ones, the challenge is to move beyond casual communication with God.

8 Principles for Productive Prayers.

1. Show some respect. God is your boss, a.k.a. your lord. Treat Him like it. Review His instructions. Do your work on time. Give progress updates. Collaborate intensively on critical issues. Defer to His authority. When you merely reduce God to the level of a guidance counselor or one of your Facebook friends you poll for relationship advice, your connection to the divine will lack a measure of sanctifying, exalting power. The scriptures refer to the "fear of God". The word fear in that context means respect and honor. When we treasure, revere and sustain God's authority, we are open to receive more from Him. We become more. A true disciple does not take lightly the privilege of communicating with God. We kneel with our knees, but do we come willing to bend our will to His? We close our eyes, but do we truly forsake the distractions of the world when we pray? 
2. Be a part of the solution. Daniel faced Goliath and conquered, but God did not put the stones in his hand. Our ideas and efforts may be poor and limited to our capacity, but when God stretches out his finger and blesses our efforts, miracles happen. Faith begins with work and preparation. Because of his faith and humility, God touched David's stones and made them a tool for deliverance. The woman who touched Jesus's clothes and was healed, but she didn't wait for him to find her and tell her what to do before she acted. Your boss doesn't want to hear your problems only. The boss wants to hear your ideas for solutions. Likewise, God expects us to study it out in our mind and ask Him if our plan is right. His Spirit can confirm it in our hearts with peace and assurance. And we can move forward with confidence even when the end is not in sight. When we use our resources to prayerfully come up with a plan, the Lord can make it shine. For example, prayerfully consider what sacrifices you can make to bless others. God is in the business of helping his children, but he is also in the business of helping us learn to serve each other. Come to God with a defined contribution plan for sharing your wealth and discuss it with Him. Giving blesses both you and the needy more than a fancy vacation or an expensive car.
3. Ask God, "What can I do?" Then LISTEN. Every faithful prayer for God's help should be followed by this question: "Lord, what can I do?" or "What would you have me do?" When we desire God's help, we submit ourselves to him. We offer our hearts, our minds and our hands. You might say, "Dear God, please help my son to do better in math. ...What can I do?" Then wait upon your knees and meditate. Perhaps no answer will come at this time. But if you consistently ask "What can I do?"--that's real intent--you will find answers to prayers will come increasingly, perhaps astonishingly consistently. My wife ponders this question on her morning run. I do it by my bedside at night. Prayer is a time of faithful collaboration with the spirit of God. Don't be in such a hurry to end a prayer that you cut out the important solution-finding part of your meeting. 
4. Take meeting notes. When God gives you instructions, like your boss, write it down. Keep a to-do list, just like work. Then you can prioritize the actions and follow up. There are lots of to-do list apps out there. Why not use one for to-do's from God? If we want to be good and do good as God expects of us, we should plan it--at least some of it. Otherwise worldly and selfish pursuits will devour our time for selfless service.
5. It's ok to have a prayer about just one issue. I've heard it taught by folks with a lot more experience and authority, but the fact should be immediately obvious, though it never occurred to me. When something is important, you don't need to make small talk about other things to have a "complete prayer". When there is an issue at work, you call a meeting and discuss it. You table extraneous issues so you can focus on the critical problem. If you need to repent, do it. That's a one topic, deep dive meeting with God. Don't try to change the subject to your cold, or "please bless mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and..." Have the courage to fess up. Stay on the topic until you've reviewed the whole event. Perhaps you should do a root cause analysis to prevent it happening again--you do it at work, why not at home?
6. Make time for service. Inspiration comes when we are about our father's business.
7. Turn off your phone when you pray and worship. You do it for important meetings at work.
8. Use morning prayer for your daily standup (kneel-down) meeting to review priorities and commit to deliverables for the day. Use evening prayer as a check-in meeting to return and report.

When we take our communication with God seriously, we honor his position as Lord of our life. When our knee bows and our tongue confesses God's sovereign authority, we are in a position to receive his will. We make his work our work, his peace our peace, his joy our joy. In a small but significant way we become tools in his hands to bless and serve, and somehow we begin to change.

A company going through a reorganization may take several quarters before the benefits show on the financials. Be patient. Trust your Celestial Executive Officer.

If we want to change our lives, it starts with changing our prayers. On the job skills can make prayers more productive, with real soul-changing, life-changing results.