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Archive for the ‘Prayer’ Category

God in the Workplace

Posted in Prayers on December 20, 2011| 2 Comments »

God is omnipresent. A big word that means He exists in all places at all times. He is everywhere. He is there, but we may not always recognize that He is there. One of the tactics used by the World, the Flesh, and the Devil is to put God into boxes and then shrink those boxes. While this doesn’t really work in terms of limiting God, it is often effective in limiting our awareness of God. The solution is very simple; maintain a close relationship with God and the reality of that intimacy will overwhelm any attempt to shrink God into a box.  The practical application of this is sometimes a little harder to achieve.

One of the early lessons in my walk with Christ was that I am not always capable of the success and achievements I aspired to.  But God did want me to be successful.  I believe that is true for every one of us.  God wants us to be successful, but not necessarily in the way we have pictured in our mind.  For me there have been goals that have had to be laid down because they did not line up with what God had planned.  And the interesting thing has been, when those have truly been surrendered, what has replaced them has been so much more fulfilling.

I was a project engineer early in my career.  I had a project to install several pumps, piping, tanks and assorted equipment.  I had $4.5 million to spend and a timeline to meet.  As a young Christian God was really training me in many areas.  One of those was an amazing season of prayer and God’s faithfulness.  As it approached crunch time on the projects with the paper machine outage and installation at hand, I was overwhelmed by my inadequacy to anticipate all the demands of the job.  I had done everything I knew to do, but I was also sure that questions would arise that I was not prepared for.  This drove me to asking for Gods’ guidance.  Not just a quickly uttered prayer as I rushed out the door, but a true covering-the-work-in-prayer type of prayer.  I knew in my own limited knowledge and understanding I would not be successful, however I trusted God to provide the wisdom and guidance I needed each day as I faithfully asked.  As the project progressed the questions and challenges did arise, but in every case the answers and solutions came.  Sometimes they came directly to me from out of the blue (God exists in the blue since He is omnipresent).  Sometimes they came from other persons.  Sometimes they seemed to resolve themselves.  At the end the project was a major success… on time and under budget.  The biggest take-away from that project was that the Lord’s faithfulness carried the day.  I offered up what little knowledge and skill I had and applied them to the job while surrendering this meager offering to the Father who supplied the remainder.

Today I get to that place of surrender on occasion, but unfortunately not always.  Because I have a lot of experience now in my field of work I sometimes just do what I have done before and not take the time to surrender each situation to the Lord.  In many instances it goes fine and when there are bobbles I can usually make the necessary adjustments.  However I realize anew how desperately I need the Lord’s help to be the man he wants me to be.  In the work I do, in my role at husband and father, with my grandson and the people I meet every day.  I want to be a success in the manner God wants me to be successful.  As I head out the door is a few minutes I am reminding myself that everywhere I go and in everything I do, God is there and aware.  Since He is a gentleman He patiently waits to be invited to join in.

“I want to be your man Lord.  I want to do your will.  Father I offer the work I do this day, the people I meet this day, and every conversation, action, and thought I have this day to You.  Be glorified in and through me today.”

God’s peace to you and yours today and always.

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A Walk with Cancer

Posted in God Stories, Prayer on May 7, 2011| 1 Comment »

A small group of 15 of us within our company at locations across North America joined together in prayer from March 9 – April 24.  We shared stories of God’s faithfulness, we looked at scripture, and we strove to be Jesus’ hands and feet in the places He put us during this time.  This blog is an outcome of that time. 

This blog is a means to continue sharing the faith with friends and co-workers.  For a few weeks I will post some of the more memorable postings from the our Easter 2011 journey.  I will also add new content. 

The posting below was from Day 3 in our Easter journey and describes the faith of a young woman battling cancer.

I took off yesterday to work a leadership conference at our church.  It was very exciting to see that many leaders, 2700, from all around the world gather to learn about how to more effectively minister.  I worked as a volunteer – meeting, greeting, and helping wherever I could.  I feel like I have 60 new friends from the many conversations that I was able to have with folks.  

I believe one conversation in particular was God-ordained for our prayer group.  The young woman, Jennifer, is 30 years old with a bright smile and dark curly hair.  As we spoke she alluded to how God has been so present for her especially through her treatments.  I asked and she shared that she is a cancer survivor with a year of clean readings.  I asked her long term prognosis and she said that her doctors told her it would return in 8 – 10 years, but she was totally convinced that the Lord who has brought her this far will see her through whatever lies ahead.  I asked about her beautiful curly hair (I once had a head full of curly hair too… once long ago it seems) and she told me it was one of God’s gifts to her AFTER the treatments.  She lost almost all her hair, but when it came back it was curly.  She had never had curly hair before.  

Now all of this was greatly encouraging for me, but then she got to the part that I think is for all of us.  She said that as she went through the treatments she continued to work.  At some point during the process her co-worker in the next booth told her.  “I just want you to know that your faith and strength have been such an encouragement to me.  They have made me look at my life and I realize I want what you have.  So I have gone to church and I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour”.  WOW!  And Jennifer then told me, “I don’t really want to go through the cancer and treatments again, but if God can use me to bring 3 – 5 people to know him through my cancer, then I think that is a great thing.”  A double WOW!

Lord Jesus, give us the kind of faith that says “Yes Lord, No matter what the cost”.  Give us the kind of witness Lord that causes people to look to You.  Give us the hope Lord that allows us to see the bigger picture through Your eyes.

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The Beginning

Posted in Prayer, tagged , , on May 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

A group of friends from work decided to commit to one another to pray for our company and co-workers.  This blog is an outcome from that effort.  While this began as a Lenten discipline leading up to Easter 2011, several of us found so much encouragement in the shared journey that we have decided to continue to pray with and for one another.  Below is the initial posting that we shared.  I will also add a few other posts from that time, but for the most part I will share new material.

I have no idea who else might read this, but I hope that whoever joins us will either be encouraged in their walk with Christ or will be intrigued to enough to seek the One that we acknowledge as God Incarnate – Jesus Christ. 

This is our first posting from March 9

Good Day to You,

A few weeks ago as I was praying, I sensed that I was to make a special prayer effort during the lead up to Easter.  I am going to be more specific about praying for our company, or more precisely the persons within our company in their many different places and needs.  As I have allowed the idea to take shape I have thought of each of you.  I am asking you to consider partnering with me in this season of prayer.  This will begin Wednesday, March 9 and go through Easter.

Since I accepted this “nudge” from the Lord, several things have occurred which give me specific items to pray for.  The CP machine shutdown and the many persons affected by it…The announcements of significant amounts of other market downtime which reflects the difficult markets we live in…Labor -Management discord at several of our sites with P and FF being two with very specific needs at this moment…Health struggles by some of our co-workers…And over all this is the continual need of many that we work with to know the love and forgiveness that our Father offers in and through His Son, Jesus.

Here is what I am planning to do and I offer it up to you as potential ideas for you to consider.

I am going to pray a hedge of protection around the persons working in our company that they would be safe and live lives that bring them to meet Jesus…before it is too late.
I will pray for the leaders of our company and our mills, that they would have the wisdom and guidance to make good decisions.  
I will pray for those who are experiencing life disruptions because of the difficult work situations such as mill closings or multiplied workloads.  As many of you have probably seen, these life disruptions are often the mechanism the Lord uses to get our eyes on Him.
I am going to lift up the persons within the company who are battling illness, difficulty, and loss.
I will lift up my brothers and sisters in the Lord that we might be faithful, consistent, obedient children of our heavenly Father.
There will be times when this prayer is combined with fasting.  (This is completely dependent upon each individual and what they are able and feel lead to do.)

I do not want this to feel in any way like compulsion on my part.  If this is not something you are comfortable with, I respect and accept that.  This is going out as a blind copy initially since some of us will likely not be in a position to commit to this at this time.

I do not mind you asking others if they would like to participate, however I do have a couple of specific requests.  First, I believe that I, and whoever participates, must be respectful of our company’s rules and guidelines (to the extent they do not violate a clear writ of scripture).  That being the case, this will probably be the only e-mail sent during normal work hours.  In the future I will post in the evenings or early morning.  I would ask that you not let this activity interfere with your work either.  Second, I would ask that you prayerfully consider before you invite someone else to join.  This endeavor is specifically for mature believers.  

In closing I want to share a scripture that really impacted me the other day.  I bought a very small bible for traveling so I can have it with me at all times.  It is an NLT translation.  The verse is from 1 Corintians 4:20  For the kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.  That is my prayer today for each of us, that people can see the kingdom of God in our lives because we are living by His power.

Have a blessed day!

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