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Spirituality in the workplace: Prayer

spirituality-in-the-workplace

How do you allow spirituality in the work place with prayer?

Prayer in the workplace

This article is one of a series which includes spirituality in the workplace, prayer in the workplace, worship in the workplace, and Bible study in the workplace.  In this article we look at practical ways to include prayer in the workplace.

A primer on prayer for the business owner

When you start thinking about creating prayer in your workspace, you must first be prayerful yourself.  You should have a regular prayer time and have some way to keep track of what you are praying for.  You don’t need to have a book of prayer unless that would help you.

There are many different ways to pray but keep your format simple.  Look at prayers in the Bible to give you guidance, but use your own words instead of regurgitating someone else’s prayer.  Prayer starts in the heart.

Prayer starts in the heart. Click To Tweet

Easy way to keep your prayer on track

For business owners, I suggest having some little reminder about what to pray for.  A simple outline helps you know what to say in prayer.  I know there are a lot of versions of the hand prayer, but this one is specifically focused on business owners and is loosely modeled after the Lord’s Prayer.

Honor God

The index, or pointer finger, points up.  What is number one in your life?  It should be God, right?  Well, start your prayer with acknowledging God for who He is.  Recognize that your business is God’s business and ask Him to lead you.

Confess sin

Now your first and second fingers are like a pair of scissors.  What do you need to cut out of your life?  What is getting in the way of you fully devoting everything to God?  Imagine yourself cutting those things out of your life.  Release them to God and quit thinking about them.

Pray for Commitments

Your third finger is your ring finger.  It is your commitment finger.  Who do you need to forgive?  Who do you need to pray for?  What business commitments do you need to give to God? This is where you take all your troubles and lay them at the feet of Jesus.

Be Thankful

The pinky finger is the smallest finger and is to remind us of all the small things in life.  Be thankful for being in business, for your employees, your family, your freedom. . . you get the point.  The more little things you can be thankful for, the better your business and life will look.  Always count your blessings no matter how small.

Glorify God

Your thumbs up reminds us of a job well done.  What good things are going on in your business that you can give God the glory?  What gifts has He given you that you can use for Him?  How can you give back and really lift up the name of God?  Use your thumb to remind you that every good and perfect gift comes from God.

Practical ways to include prayer in the workplace

Prayer time

You could simply develop a time and let everyone know you will be praying during that time and anyone should feel free to join you.  You could have prayer cards where they can fill in information for you to pray about. Or you can have an online forum or social media group specifically for prayer.

Prayer Room

Another great idea is to find a closet or unused office and set up a prayer room.  Make it comfortable with dim lighting and minimal furniture.  You can even put prayers on the wall, have a prayer journal anyone can write in and have creative prayer stations.

Individual Prayer Sessions

If you are really bold, you can even put up a prayer schedule and pray once a day in a specific place in your office.  Allow employees to sign up to pray with you during each session.  Just tell them that you are praying for them and they can feel free to share their prayer requests and join you in prayer.  If no one joins you, at least you have a scheduled uninterrupted time of prayer and your workers know you care for them.

Precautions and Wisdom

  • No one person should feel pressured to pray or be included in the prayers.  Some of your workers may not be Christian and others may follow the Bible verse that talks about going into your prayer closet and praying in private. Let everyone know that they are welcome to pray with you, but it is not required.  On that note, make sure everyone knows that you can’t get ahead in promotions or be fired for anything said during prayer.
  • Prayer is a very intimate time, so be cautious about one on one prayer time with anyone of the opposite sex.  In today’s time, it would be best not to be alone with anyone.  Have an accountability person with you during prayer times or have a secretary in eye and earshot so that you can always live above accusations.
  • Prayer time is not just talking to God, but also listening to Him.  Take time for silence in prayer.  Learn to be still and allow God to talk to you.  If you are praying with a group, time it.  Say something like, “For the last 2, 3, or 5 minutes, we are going to be silent and just let God talk to us.”
  • People pray in different styles. Make sure you set the standard for what prayer will be like.  Will you allow people to lay on the ground?  Can anyone prayer?  How will it be lead?  Will there be a written prayer guide?  Will there be music, videos, incense or candles? Will everyone pray at once or will one person pray and everyone else listens?  Communicate how your prayer sessions will be and don’t be afraid to offer different styles every once in a while to include everyone.
  • Pray for people not persons. Don’t include actual names of people when you pray.  You don’t want to stir up gossip nor do you want to be liable for sharing private information.  When praying with a group, keep the prayers general.  Pray for leaders, business systems, pray for customer growth, etc.  Even when you pray for leaders by name, try not to be political.  Group prayer is about honoring God and bringing the group along.  Use your personal prayer time to pray for specifics.

Keep it simple and start small

I suggest keeping your group prayer simple.  You can grow and change the format as you get input from you employees and as you develop yourself as the prayer leader.  Here is how I would start:

Have a place to pray.  Make it easy to find, but somewhere semi-private.

Have a written outline of what you will pray for that day. Keep it general: business growth, government leaders, world events, etc.

Have a specific time to begin and end your prayer. Yes, you want the Holy Spirit to move during your prayer time, but you are in business to help people and you can’t help people if everyone is praying.  If revival breaks out, go with the flow, but otherwise have some sort of alarm set to alert you of when time ends.

 

Christian Entrepreneurs Series

In this series we will discuss Christian business leadership and what it could look like to have spirituality, especially Christianity, active and living in the workplace:

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