Do you sometimes feel the heavy burden of owning your own business? If you are like me, you may have moments where you really need someone with broad shoulders to talk to. Instead of being the one people always come to, wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to turn to for understanding, direction, and support?
As a business leader, it is quite often the tendency to be brave and handle things alone. As a Christian though, don’t forget, you are never alone.
We know God is there, we just need to reach out to Him. The most common way is through prayer. There are many ways to pray; short one word prayers, praying with others, and my favorite, the long rambling prayers in the recesses of the mind.
Although it feels good to vent, we can get so much more help in our business by going deeper with God. You know, a two way interaction; a conversation with God.
Just like anything else, communication creates relationship and intimacy. It also helps us to clarify our thoughts and to work through feelings, issues, plans and more.
It may feel a bit uncomfortable, maybe even self-serving, to pray about your business.
God Never Hangs Up First
I know sometimes it is hard to believe that He even cares about our businesses. I have talked to many clients who feel that:
- Praying for business to grow seems shallow.
- Praying for protection and help seems like a lack of faith.
- Praying for Jesus to help carry our burdens is shucking our responsibility and putting it all on Him.
We know in our minds that God does care about everything in our lives and He wants us to depend on Him.
This is where adding more conversation into your prayer life may make all of the difference.
Here are some suggestions to turn prayers into conversations with God:
- Try writing to God in a journal or an app. If you write to God it will naturally come out in your own words and be more conversational. (I know some people aren’t into journaling, so this is just a suggestion!)
- Seek God’s response. In one way prayers we sometimes just lift up our concerns or desires to God and hope He takes care of them. If we ask questions, ask for His advice, pray for His guidance, we are opening the conversation up for His response.
- Read scripture. The best place to find God’s thoughts is in the Bible. Seeking His guidance on a topic in the bible many times leads to the Holy Spirit speaking to us through God’s Word.
- Listen. This is one of the hardest parts. I have read in many prayer books that we should be still and listen for God’s response. That obviously works for many people. But, if you suffer with spiritual ADD like me, you might want to try writing back to yourself what you believe God would suggest or advise. By writing it down, your mind may wander less!
- Follow-up. To keep God in the conversation we need to keep Him updated. Give thanks when He does answer prayers. Share with Him what you are trying to do on your end. And, of course, ask for continued help.
As a parent I often get calls from one of my children with a problem, a plan or an opportunity. They want to discuss and get advice. When we hang up, they have a plan.
Then you never hear about it again.
A week later, I will ask about the test, how they are feeling after a sickness, or what did they did about the campus job. I hear back some version of “Oh, yeah, I did that a week ago” or “I don’t even remember that. It was no big deal.” They literally forgot to let me know how it all went.
Isn’t that similar to what we do with God? We call out in prayer. We ask for help. We may even shout a “thank you, Lord” when He faithfully gets us through whatever we needed. But we never seem to give him back all of the details and depth and emotion that we brought with us to the prayer.
To honor Him, thank him, truly know His ways, try an ongoing conversation with Him. What will you get?
The richness and depth of a relationship, of trust, of intimacy with our Creator.
Dialing in on a Conversation With God
Why don’t you try this with me? Why don’t you start a conversation with God about your business? Tell Him three things you would like to see change in your business. The next day, give Him some background on them. Each day ask for His wisdom and discernment. The third day bring back to Him some ideas you have to work on these three things. Lift these ideas up to Him. Ask Him to clarify for you the steps you should take. Ask Him to open the doors for the steps that are His will and to close the doors on the ones that are not.
After one week, I would ask you to answer these three questions:
- Do you feel closer in your relationship with God?
- Do you have more clarity on your issues and plans you discussed with Him?
- Do you feel more confident and sure that your plans in your business are in alignment with His will?
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