Introduction to the Business of Prayer

Expectation for the Business of Prayer

The Business of Prayer – Part 1

When Pamela and I decided to teach a group of pray-ers (people who pray) on the philosophy of “the business of prayer” we had no idea it would turn out like it did. This section in “Next Level Prayer” is designed with one major goal and that’s to make sure you never run out of things to pray; ever again. Doesn’t that sound like something we need? What if you could overload God to the point where He had to get some help with the requests you make?

In fact, the scripture indicates that in Heaven, God has this bowl or basin where He stores our prayers. ^[1] When I understood this, my first thoughts were that of a raffle drawing. Everyone purchases tickets and your tickets are placed in the bowl. In order to have a better chance at winning, the more tickets you purchase that are added to the bowl yields a strong advantage of winning the raffle. Using this thought, I envision God’s basin of prayers in the same way. I want to have so many prayers logged or entered that when He reaches down into the bowl or basin more than likely it would be my request He pulls out. Thank God that’s not how it works.

However, there is something to the thought of filling this bowl or basin with prayers. How many prayers do you have logged? Is there any accounting or tracking that you do with your prayers? God tracks them and not only does He account for your prayers but your tears ^[2] and the hairs on your head. ^[3] Do you have a system in place for your prayers? This is not only next level prayer, but the business of prayer.

Expectations
With the group of pray-ers that we were gathered with, Pamela and I introduced this title and asked them what might their expectations be with such a title and content. There were four main expectations that surfaced:

1. A desire to pray naturally or offer practical prayers,
2. Increase the length and consistency of praying,
3. Preparing an agenda for use in prayer, and
4. Break the generational misunderstanding or lack of understanding when it comes to prayer.

Of these four expectations, only one won’t be expounded as much upon in this section, preparing an agenda for use in prayer. We will save that until later when we discuss praying in a manner.

The Business of Prayer
However we will be discussing the following in this set of messages:

• Why should you be able to pray for an hour?
  (Length & consistency in praying)
  I remember years ago, the church I was attending made it, sort of, a requirement for us to pray for an hour. Have you ever tried to pray for an hour? Normal thinking would have you believe this is hard to do. If you think it’s hard to do, then I’m afraid you follow in this normal category and should continue reading. For those who object to praying for an hour, their normal response is that we pray small prayers throughout the day; I don’t totally object to this and believe we should pray sporadically throughout the day. This too is a normal excuse for why one doesn’t pray for a next level length of time. What I’d like you to consider is that in next level prayer, you will desire to pray for hours or as the scripture says without ceasing. Is this really possible and can we look forward to it?
• What does this phrase “business of prayer” mean?
  (A desire to pray naturally or offer practical prayers)
  One of the questions we like to ask when it comes to this topic is what does this phrase “business of prayer” bring to mind? What does it say to you? In this section, we have to come to grips that there is a business piece to prayer. It’s not simply us going to God and He answering the requests we ask for and those we’ve not asked for. However, we look into the business side of your prayers. Are you serious enough about prayer? Are you serious enough to pray because of what’s at stake if you don’t? This is next level prayer!
• Prayer takes work; it results in work.
  (Break the generational misunderstanding or lack if understanding when it comes to prayer)
  Prayer like any other worthwhile activity takes work. If it were easy then everyone would do it and do it well. What if I were to ask you to take some paper and a pen and write a list of “everything.” Yes, “every thing.” Where would you start? Where would you stop? How would you make sure you covered everything? How long would it take for you to draft a list of everything? Now think about this. After having a list of everything, how long would it take to pray about everything you listed? It would take a huge amount of time. While prayer is easy, then again it is not since one of the directives is to pray about everything. ^[4] This is the business of “next level” prayer!
• Your life is your business.
  (Preparing an agenda for use in prayer.)
  If your life is the business that God has charged you with making profitable, then how are you reporting on its progress? How are you conducting this business? What’s your plans and how’s your progress? Are you going into the meeting with the CEO of Universe prepared? Does God want to fire you from leading your own life? What goals do you have for your business (life) this quarter that you’re going to report on? This is next level prayer!

This is the business of prayer. I know what you’re thinking because we’ve already tested it out. Your mind is running wild just reading this introduction as it has elevated your thoughts about prayer. Just wait until we dive into each section. Again, I’d like to restate our goal. Prayer is an activity that should be enjoyed. I’ve heard it said that the number one topic any individual loves to talk about is themselves. In the business of prayer, you get to talk about yourself completely to God and never again run out of stuff (ideas, updates, requests, thoughts, problems, solutions, victories, accomplishments, shortcoming, etc.) to talk to Him about. This is next level prayer, the business of prayer.

Question: what are your thoughts as you process this next level prayer philosophy of “the business of prayer?”

[1] ‭‭Revelation 5:8 NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed March 21, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/REV.5.8.NLT
[2] Psalms 56:8 NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed March 21, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/PSA.56.8.NLT
[3] Luke 12:6-7 NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed March 21, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/LUK.12.6-7.NLT
[4] Philippians 4:6 NLT‬, Bible.com, accessed March 21, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/PHP.4.6.NLT

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.