Pray for your business

DO YOU PRAY for your business?  I know that I’ve struggled with this question over the years.

In our society, we try hard to separate our religious lives on Sunday from our secular lives the other six days of the week.

But God has asked us to be focused on him at all times, not just for an hour or two.

It’s also a struggle, because “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Tim 6:10)   Because we tend to think of business as driven primarily by the pursuit of money, it feels like it should be unholy and even evil.

“But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.” (Dt 8:18)

God wants us to help each other, to be fruitful individually and in cooperation.  Business is no more holy or evil than a single person.  Which means that we should pray for our business to be holy as we do ourselves.

Remember, money is just one of the means by which a business is sustainable.  It’s not a bad thing to be profitable, for the same reason as it’s not bad for you to earn a good wage and have money in the bank.

It’s how we use the money that counts. Don’t love money for its own sake, but use it to make a difference in the world.

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”  (1 Pet 4:10)

Let’s not pray for money itself.  Let’s focus instead on the good that we’re able to do with that money – and all the other resources at our disposal.  Let’s not pray for success in earthly terms, but instead to bring about the Kingdom through our efforts as a group.