Confluence: Prayers for Committing our Work to God

Part of an engaged and practiced theology of work must include learning how to pray meaningfully in and for our work. Learning to do this by praying the prayers of others can help get us started on such a journey of discovery. It can begin to give us a biblical vocabulary for directing our focus to God and His work, so that we might know and do his will through our work each day.

“My food is to will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” – John 5:34

The following prayers for committing our work to God has been taken from the prayers of the Northumbria Community as given in “Oswald – In Practical Ways” in Celtic Daily Prayer, pp. 153-7.

Challenge: Try stopping your work every day at noon (or as close to noon as you can), going to a quiet place and praying the prayer below. It should take about 10-15 minutes. Do it faithfully for a week and see what difference it makes.

This noon prayer for your work will be a difficult discipline to keep up, but adopting such a practice can allow the Spirit to build deeper into the moments of your daily work life. You will be joining others around the world in prayer, and together we will worship our wonderful God who created, ordained and sanctified our work rightfully to be worship and service to Himself.

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:16-17

23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

Colossians 3:23-25

* Indicates a change of reader
With a large group, split into two halves and read alternately
All say together the sections in bold type.

* This day is Your gift to me;
I take it, Lord, from Your hand
and thank You for the wonder of it.

God be with me
in this Your day,
every day
and every way,
with me and for me
in this Your day;
and the love
and affection
of heaven be toward me.

* All that I am, Lord,
I place into Your Hands.
All that I do, Lord,
I place into Your Hands.

* Everything I work for
I place into Your Hands.
Everything I hope for
I place into Your Hands.

* The troubles that weary me
I place into Your Hands.
The thoughts that disturb me
I place into Your Hands.
* Each that I pray for
I place into Your Hands.
Each that I care for
I place into Your Hands.

* I place into Your hands, Lord,
the choices that I face,
Guard me from choosing
the way perilous
of which the end is heart-pain
and the secret fear.

* Rich in counsel,
show us the way
that is plain and safe.

* May I feel Your presence
at the heart of my desire,
and so know it for Your desire for me.
Thus shall I prosper,
thus see that my purpose is from You,
thus have power to do the good which endures.

* Show me what blessing it is
that I have work to do.
And sometimes,
and most of all
when the day is overcast
and my courage faints,
let me hear Your voice, Saying,
’You are my beloved one
in whom I am well pleased.’

* Stand at the crossroads and look,
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is,
and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.

* In the name of Christ we stand,
and in his name
move out across the land
in fearfulness and blessing.

* To gather the Kingdom to the King
and claim this land for God:
a task indeed.

* Give us to see Your will,
and power to walk in its path;
and lo! the night is routed and gone.

* Lord, hasten the day
when those who fear You in every nation
will come from the east and the west,
from north and south,
and sit at table in Your Kingdom.
And, Lord,
let Your glory be seen in our land.

* He has shown you, O Man, what is right;
and what does the Lord require of you,
but to do justly, and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God?

* Keep me close to You, Lord.
Keep me close to You.
I lift my hands to You, Lord,
I lift them to You.

Hands, Lord, Your gift to us,
we stretch them up to You.
Always You hold them.

* Help me to find my happiness
in my acceptance
of what is your purpose for me:
in friendly eyes, in work well done,
in quietness born of trust,
and, most of all,
in the awareness of Your presence
in my spirit.