Prayer, Work, and How Much Money You Need to Earn to Be a Faithful Christian
Vocation Series 001: Three Prayers to Pray in Consideration of Work and Spiritual Formation
It is a most common prayer request, right up there with Aunt Susie’s knee replacement surgery:
Pray for my job (new job, promotion, relational equity, etc.).
This makes sense. We exist in a world where our survival, comfort, esteem, social well being, and peace of mind are all entangled with the exchange of time, skill, and labor for fiat currency within a particular industry. Thus, seeking the aid and intervention of a Higher Power with regard to work and career matters beyond our control is natural.
And maybe you are in such a moment.
Looking for a job? Negotiating a raise? Discerning a change in career? Dealing with a micromanaging employer? Insufferable colleagues?
Go on. Ask for God’s favor and blessing.
Jabez it all the way up! Lord would you bless me indeed…
May the odds be in your favor… Let the games begin…
But as we pray for things to go well, I wonder…
How might our prayers and participation in the American economy change if spiritual formation was our primary aim?
I offer below three prayerful questions to in consideration of work and its direct corollary to the ultimate vocation of spiritual formation — that lifelong journey of becoming a man or woman of God...
And it begins with the most pragmatic:
God. How Much Money Do I Need?
Sometimes what is most spiritual is what is most practical.
In the same New Testament text that says the love of money is the root of all evil, the Apostle Paul makes this bold claim:
Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
I believe in God the Father… and I will go get a job… You never thought keeping a job and apostasy were one and the same did you?
In much simpler terms, I think Paul is drawing from what we see in Genesis 1 and all throughout the Scriptures:
Work is holy responsibility.
There are two extremes I come across in Christian circles in regards to work and money:
Spiritual Negligence. God will provide. While this cliche sounds like a word of faith, it can become a word of displacing and neglecting responsibility.
Spiritual Detachment. I will give more if I make more. Here, the idea of making money is detached from our life in God. This is the separation (as opposed to integration) of work and faith.
Thus, a worthwhile practical, spiritual, and scriptural question to ask is, “How much money do I need?”
There are of course, levels to such a question. The amount needed to survive against the amount needed to have peace of mind are most likely different dollar amounts, but my point here is to consider taking this practical financial question to the place of prayer.
There are few decisions that a young couple make that are more important than the attitude toward money. One should as early as possible determine the top income one would ever want to strive to have. The question of money and the dangers it poses should be kept under the closest scrutiny. Otherwise the desire ineluctably grows, avarice feeds upon itself, and one ends up as the victim of an appetite that is in fact insatiable and consumes by worry, guilt, and discontent the hours and days that were once consecrated to ministry.
Willimon, William H.. Calling and Character: Virtues of the Ordained Life (p. 103). Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.
God. What Kind of Person Am I Becoming Here?
Does work make you cynical? Angry? Anxious? Ambitious? Self-centered?
Given that the average person spends 40 hours a week in a work environment, your job is the primary arena for spiritual formation.
When pondering the kind of work God is leading us to, we often consider what will be most fulfilling or what will offer the highest compensation.
But for those who take serious the lifelong journey of formation, we must ask the question: what kind of person will I become in light of this work?
I often hear people say to me:
“God really opened this door.”
“It’s all God. I couldn’t have gotten this job otherwise.”
We love talking about how God is present in the act of finding work… but we are much less discerning in the ways God is building the virtues of patience, truth-telling, integrity, and compassion in and through our jobs.
This is not a matter of industry. Many pastors I know would answer in the positive to the questions starting this section.
A good prayer practice at the start of a work day is to ask, LORD how are you inviting me to enter the life of Christ in and through my workplace?
When seeking God around formation (as opposed to compensation and fulfillment) you may discern its time for a change in career or change in attitude, but in either case the true vocation of union with God comes into focus.
God. What Greater Story Are You Writing Here?
Here is a two cent self-help life tip I subscribe to: when work is not at the center of your identity, you become better at your work. You are more than what you do.
Here is the good news:
There is a larger story of redemption unfolding around us.
Whether you are a professional overcompensated clergy person, a software engineer, or a blue collar construction worker… God is inviting you to participate in this story of renewal.
I once had a job I hated.
My daily commute was a daily existential crisis. What am I doing with my life? What is America? What is the meaning of life? Thank goodness for the long-suffering nature of God. Because I must have sounded so annoying.
I was working in three unrelated departments of an organization that I felt was driven by motivations I fundamentally disagreed with. I could talk for days about what was wrong with its culture and leadership. What a typical millennial.
Well, those commutes of barfing up stereotypical millennial complaints became moments of sacred dialogue.
After spewing out all my despondence, I would hear a gentle whisper back from the Spirit…
First a word of affirmation, embrace, and sonship.
Then a word of invitation to lay down (if but for five minutes at a time) my pompous questions and my need to hold this institution in judgment to my standards and expectations (often projection of my own pain).
Then I would hear again another gentle invitation. Mike, I am doing something here. Come and join me.
There is a greater story God is writing in and through your workplace and industry. Listening for this greater story is the work of spiritual formation and Christian discipleship… Learning to surrender our own judgments to listen and joyfully obey the prompting of the Spirit.
Engaging in this spiritual work of attentiveness to God each day builds like compound interest, until one day we find ourselves alive and full of joy. In this state of the soul all matter of work and play is done in communion with God for the glory of God. May you listen and obey.
Grace and Peace
Rev. Mike Whang