As with all of our prayers (or mine at least) there is a tendency, when we pray about our work, simply to spiritualise the values of the culture around us and pray for what everyone in our lab or department wants, be they Christian or not. This usually means praying for some combination of success, ease and recognition. We can find ourselves voicing prayers that run something like “Lord, please help me to do this work well”, “please grant me success with this presentation or paper” or “please would my paper get accepted.” Sound familiar?
Is it that we should never pray prayers like this? Not at all; Jesus is the Lord of the whole of life and he has an interest in all we are and do: the adiaphora, the matters of middling importance and the crucial decisions alike. Nevertheless, when we pray for success or recognition it would be a healthy habit to check our motivations and ask ourselves whether our prayers are compatible with seeking first God’s kingdom (not our own), and doing his will (not our own). As with so much in the Christian life, it comes down to motivations. Why do I want to be successful? If the answer yields a reason that has nothing to do with God’s glory, values or priorities, then perhaps I need to rethink that prayer, and stop treating the sovereign God of the universe as my day-to-day personal servant.
An academic prayer life that always circles around questions of meeting deadlines, success, and recognition, is a very monochrome palette with which to try to paint a vibrant and rich relationship with God. So here are just a few suggestions to widen the colour spectrum of our academic prayer life. For more ideas, see the earlier post on the academic prayer life, and the prayers and prayer life category.
- “Lord, help me to see your glory/justice/compassion/beauty/unfathomable nature in this equation/theory/specimen/novel/data, and give me the spiritual lungs to praise you for it.”
- “Thank you, heavenly Father, for the opportunity to exercise the gifts you have given me in this context in which I find myself.”
- “Lord, if I completely abandoned my agenda for today and at each point did what you most want me to do, please show me what today would look like, and give me the courage to do it.”
- “Lord, please show me how I can be working for the welfare of this place today (Jer 29:7).”
- “Lord, as I busy myself with this work today, please be working on me by your Holy Spirit through your Word, shaping my character and growing in me the fruit of the Spirit in the way that I respond to setbacks and frustrations, to success and to flattery, and to the everyday challenges and joys of the academic life.”
I’m sure there are many more ways than these to broaden the academic prayer palette. Please feel free to add more ideas in the comments box below.
