“The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16
How can you pray effectively and fervently for your business? Well, one thing I have been seeing is that effective prayer is not general rote prayer. Lord, please bless my business is too general, not that He can’t and won’t answer that prayer. But I have found to pray fervently, I need to be specific on what I need. I might need more coaching clients, or more traffic. So that is what I pray for. How many new coaching clients do I need? Ask for 2, 3, 4 or whatever is needed.
Why does God care if we pray generally or specifically? Well, I think, first of all, we are much more likely to recognize that the answer and provision came from Him when we specifically ask Him for something. That should cause us to be grateful and to thank Him.
Secondly, I think it is good to pray specifically because it heightens our awareness as to what we need. If I need to bring more traffic to my website, I am much more aware when an opportunity arises that can help with that, such as writing a guest blog post or offering a freebie to someone to give to their list. I can take advantage of opportunities that come up, whereas before, I may have overlooked them.
How about it? What is on your prayer list for your business this week?
Remember to pick up your free devotional report on “Running a Business that Honors God” at Christian Business Principles.
That’s a very good point Laurie! I think many of us think, “Well, God knows what I need before I need it.” We think our prayer is just for God. It’s actually for us! God already knows our needs, but He wants us to voice them to Him. Not for Him or so that we can get what we ask for. God isn’t a genie granting wishes. He may want us to ask so that WE know what we really need and how to recognize it if it comes in a form we don’t expect. Great post!!
Yes Laurie I certainly agree with praying for things specifically. I find myself now praying along the lines of Matthew 16:19 because Jesus says these are the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. I know many of us have been taught that this scripture has to do with binding and loosing but the language actually is more accurate in saying locking and unlocking which really falls in line with what Jesus is saying about keys of the Kingdom. So for example I pray that I unlock finances, and customers and resources to come to my business and I lock the spirit of poverty and greed and so forth I hope you get the picture and this is helpful.
Ruben,
This is great input. I do know what you mean – thanks for sharing!