3 physical triggers to help you pray more while you work
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:5-15)
The disciples are never recorded asking Jesus to teach them how to hit goals, manage a team, or even read Scripture. The only thing the gospels say the disciples asked Jesus to teach them was how to pray (see Luke 11:1) to which Jesus answered with the Lord’s Prayer which also shows up in the Sermon on the Mount.
Commenting on this in the phenomenal book Lead With Prayer, pastor John Mark Comer says: “It seems that after watching their Lord ‘behind the scenes,’ [the disciples] had come to the conclusion that Jesus’ extraordinary outer life of power was the result of an even more extraordinary inner life of prayer.”
Is prayer as important to your work as it was to Jesus’s? I can’t say “yes” to that question most days. But by God’s grace, I’m growing in this area—doing my work much more intimately with God through prayer. Not just during my morning quiet times, but throughout the day.
Here are 3 triggers that prompt me to pray during my workday.
#1: My commute. For decades, Dave Hataj, Owner of Edgerton Gear in Wisconsin, has prayed the Lord’s Prayer on his drive to work, ending it like this: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done at Edgerton Gear as it is in heaven.” I love that and often pray “at Jordan Raynor & Company” as it is in heaven on the 30 second commute from my living room to my upstairs office.
#2: The sticky note on my refrigerator. This isn’t fancy. It just says PRAY. But now when I am waiting for coffee to warm up in the microwave, I am much less likely to aimlessly wander through my phone and much more likely to intentionally wander into God's presence through prayer.
#3: An empty Zoom room. I’m 2-5 minutes early to most Zoom meetings. I used to spend this time processing items in my CTS Inbox or (let’s be honest) checking my books’ bestseller rankings. But now—most of the time—I use those minutes to pray for the meeting that’s about to begin.
Those are the triggers helping me do my work with God and not just for him. What’s working for you? Reply to this email and let me know!
And if you’re not praying throughout your workday, try one of the triggers above. Because if we want to walk in the way of The Way at work, prayer isn’t optional. It was the center of Jesus’s life and work. May it be the center of ours, too.
