Using Prayer to Become More Productive

Praying for “You Incorporated” – Part 6

The Business of Prayer – Part 5.6

If the life God’s given you is a business, then how are you running yours? There is a famous story that’s told of a master who needed to travel to a far away country, so he delegated his affairs to those who worked for him. He had several employees and he decided to delegate responsibility as the employees could handle it. To one employee, he gave five additional responsibilities, to another he gave three, and to another he gave one. Upon his return, these employees had to report on what was done with the additional responsibilities. What’s interesting about this story we’ve heard many times was what’s not said. This master didn’t want to hear his employees say that they were returning the delegated responsibilities in the same way that they received them. It doesn’t say that they were expected to simply hold on to it without making any adjustments. [1]</span>  In fact, it was expected of them to be productive with what was given to them. In other words, they were expected to take their responsibilities to the next level and so are you.

In the same way this is what God is saying to us as He’s delegated responsibilities to us to be productive. 

How would you update the Master (your Master) on your productivity?
There are four main areas I’d like to offer which require our productivity. You can probably think of others, but these four will get you moving and taking next level steps. If God is who I’m reporting to on my productive efforts what would I say to Him?

  1. Life Goals
    For lack of a better way to say this, we’ll call it your life goals. This refers to what has been planted within you to accomplish. Most people, that means normal people, have overlooked this area for the next one, employment. Most people focus all their energy on their employment and fail to realize that the employment is there to fund one’s God-given mission, one’s life goals, one’s purpose for existing. Regardless, if you’re standing before God what would you say to Him about yours?

    I would impel you to be honest, even if you are like that one talent servant who did nothing. This will give you an opportunity to change that today if you’re willing to talk to Him about it. For me, I enjoy sharing the progress with God on where we are with making our dreams come to pass. It’s like creating something from nothing. It’s like this book, Next Level Prayer, we had no intentions on creating such a tool and from nothing we have thousands of words that are now working together for our purpose of taking others to the next level. What’s the status of your life goals? This is what you need to share with The Master, if you want to take it to the next level. This is the business of prayer!

     

  2. Employment
    Most of us are employed. As a pray-er (person who prays) and especially a next level pray-er, one of the topics of discussion you should present to Jesus is how things are going on your job. He should hear about all your projects, your successes, your failures, your wins, and your losses. Don’t leave anything out. In fact, talk to Him about your daydreams surrounding your employment. If I were you, I’d start to work in my ideal employment, environment, roles, etc. when I pray. There is no one else better equipped to help you achieve such things. Talk to Him about your team, the people you report to, the people that report to you, and how you should be improving. Praying over your employment includes such things as: payroll, evaluations, profit sharing, 401k contributions, the health of the company, company goals, etc.

    Allow me to go back to the health of the company for just a moment. I don’t believe your company, team or department should be struggling with you on the job. You are a pray-er, your prayer should be inspiring change that makes your workplace thrive. On another note, everyday, I spend time with God reviewing my calendar so that I can include Him in what task should be accomplished for the day. If you want an ordinary life, all you need to do is leave God out of it, but if you want an extraordinary life, invite Him into it. This is next level prayer!

     

  3. Your Employees
    Everyone has employees. This area always gets everyone. What employees? Every home has employees. Employees simply mean people who provide a service to you that you pay for. It doesn’t mean you have to have full time employees. You can have part-time employees. Regardless, you should be praying for your HVAC guys, your lawn-care service providers, etc. Why? Because you want all to go well with them so that all goes well with you. There are a number of employees the business of your home has. Make a list of your employees. We have a cleaning service, graphic designers, virtual assistants, web developers, transcribers, editors, publishers, audio editors, and video editors, just to name a few. Who all is helping you to be productive? If you’re going to make a difference in the lives of others, then include these folks whom you interact with regularly. This is next level prayer!

     

  4. Education and continued education
    This area is often called a growth plan. With that said, what’s your plan for growth in the areas we’ve already mentioned? What would you say when you report to Jesus on your growth in each area? Do you have to report that you are the same and behind on the times? Or would you say you’ve read 5 books and used 10 takeaways to improve in each respective area? Have you shared your takeaways with Jesus so that you can discuss how you plan on implementing such knowledge? What would you say to Him on how you plan to take your life and in this case your productivity to the next level? This is next level prayer!

How’s that for talking to The God of the Universe? Will you continue to answer like that one servant who made no progress on the responsibilities He was given? Or will you be like those servants who took what was given to them and made substantial progress? Everything we do as believers starts and stops with our connection with Him, our prayer. The scripture says we’re like a branch connected to the vine which He’s the vine. If we stay connected to Him we are productive, but apart from Him we are unproductive. [2] Talking to God and prayer is your connection, it is the gateway to becoming productive. This is the business of prayer!

Question: what other areas of productivity can you think of to add to our list as a focus of our next level prayers?

[1] ‭‭Matthew 25:14-30 NLT ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed June 9, 2022, https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.25.14-30.NLT

[2] ‭‭John 15:1-5‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ NLT‬‬, Bible.com, accessed June 9, 2022, https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.15.1-5.NLT

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

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