Pray Your Way Through the Financial Crises
Posted: Wednesday, June 29, 2011
by Joseph Jagde
Prayer encompasses many of our present day earthly concerns and a big concern for many at times becomes financial as strains and strands of difficulty appear in that both personal and public arena.
Generally, there are a lot of headlines in the media about the current and ongoing various financial tailspins too the point that it is obsessive. This in and of itself represents a spiritual shortfall, where to a large extent the reality of the spiritual world is shaded away as if it doesn't exist or factor in with this, and the earth spins around things like falling real estate price
Almost everything out there is sold in bright lights as leading to new, better and bigger things. What could go wrong is not going to make the advertising billboards and it kind of swept under the rug of fine print.
Of course there is great support given post purchase for certain products. At the same time we have things iike the increasing cost of education, that supposedly will lead to great jobs and even potentially long lasting careers, yet at the other end of the rainbow of that picture, recent grads are finding out their position in the job market is not that great. In the meantime, they seem to have really overpaid for an education if the expectations had been that it would be almost an automatic career enhancer.
We have a financial industry worldwide that is heavily deregulated, and this game is devoid of controls meaning that whatever goes wrong a little further down the road is somebody else's problem. Hence we have bailouts.
As a parallel to this, the bailouts could have been say environmental. Say for example, environmental controls were hugely taken off building projects. Those builders may initially profit substantially, but the environmental fallout to the air, sea and land comes a little bit later and the pollution disseminates widely, an environment crises ensues because builders wanted to make more money up front at the expense of environmental controls. This scene is only theoretical but in the case of the financial industry, this is what actually has happened, controls are taken off and the fallout from that becomes somebody else’s problem such as the taxpayer.
Then while the availability of videos for just about anything is great, it also means that anyone who can't get across their message in this economic times in a format that doesn't include videos in way behind the eight ball. The consumer taste for information has gone video.
People are having difficulty finding a viable path in terms of good finances as well due to changing signposts where many areas where you could make money are drying up due to changing markets that are real but haven't yet been fully illuminated and acclimated to by companies and individuals in terms of making some money in the context of new economic models..
Many people with great expertise and education have not quite adapted to this new rising Phoenix of mass information times 2 and have trouble getting their voice across and some dollars or equivalent flowing their way.
Multitasking has become common, as students text in class at places like Stanford U. and believe that they indeed still can handle all these tasks at once simultaneously.
Then there are many people who are doing a second or third thing work wise that is providing them a good portion of their income.
Then some of us are borrowed to the hilt, all the way down the river of debt.
In any event, if I simply do not have the money, yes I can maybe borrow it, or I just can't do some things that I legitimately would prefer to do. The same of course goes for time, as a corollary to this.
Even if I am Mr. expert, time allows only so many bets on the table, I can be working 24 hours a day on this job, and it still might not pay off if my theory about this being a market that I can hit, doesn't pay off or materialize in ways predicted and envisioned..
If for example I want to research through 30 books and I don't have much free time available, I am simply not going to be able to do this.
And people do run into time problems, as employers feel the need to demand undivided loyalty time wise, where you might always be on clock or at least available if you want to keep this job.
So we can see that finance is a big deal, and its pursuit can involve an huge amount of time, time that may indeed not be well spent if you followed the wrong roads or took a following the herd mentality that just didn't pan out for you in particular..
But how about personal prayer and praying about financial issues especially if you feel the issue is dragging you down in some important area?
This is a quite a broad topic, but there are some ideas to bandy about.
First off this is an area of difficulty that could be the subject of exploitation all over the place, including what you might hear from a church or preacher who might be giving prosperity messages and subsequently ask for a large contribution you might not have.
The simplified message of prosperity preachers is that if you do this, the Lord will do that. But the reality is that while the hand of the Lord is present, and there is an invitation to seek all things in prayer how the Lord is going to respond with finances cannot be precisenly known.
There are tenents to follow, such as don't rob the poor, but whatever the Lord might do for you financially, might be a personal matter that is contextual to the personal prayer relationship and the way he deals with you specifically..
Relationship and fellowship with the Lord is not predicated on finances. You cannot buy your way into the favor of the Lord, even by donating to good causes doesn't for sure merit the Lord's favor. While it may not hurt to do things like that, it doesn't automatically follow that the Lord is going come right back with a give and take blessing that comes in the form of money. You for sure might get other blessings, such as peace, joy, and so on, but not necessarily a precise monetary reward..
While you may be secretly hoping that good deeds send outwards, using the idea of good sowing will lead to good reaping, there is no need to be shy about expressing this to the Lord directly. that you also wish to reap what you sow on the finanical ground as well.
Looking at Ezekiel chapter 29, the Lord did dry up all the channels of making money in Egypt, for a good stretch and the reverse of this indicates that the Lord may bring about good finances through any number of channels, channels which are either opened or closed actually by him.
So it is possible a deal can be brokered with the Lord, that some spiritual good deeds, such as even praying for say other countries and things like this could result in a direct financial remuneration from the Lord, even if from your limited vision of things there are no known channels out there where you are geting actually money for saying prayers, it is even possible that the Lord will channel money in exchange for things like extended prayer threw previously unknown and unforeseen channels.
Another aspect is that in seeking financial blessings from the Lord, it is one thing to inquire of this blessing and another thing to outright demand the bless
Prayer encompasses many of our present day earthly concerns and a big concern for many at times becomes financial as strains and strands of difficulty appear in that both personal and public arena.
Generally, there are a lot of headlines in the media about the current and ongoing various financial tailspins too the point that it is obsessive. This in and of itself represents a spiritual shortfall, where to a large extent the reality of the spiritual world is shaded away as if it doesn't exist or factor in with this, and the earth spins around things like falling real estate price
The tint of this is that everything was expected to be a rising tide and when this reversed, the idea became that is some kind of catastrophe. Or a so called crises.
Almost everything out there is sold as leading to new, better and bigger things. What could go wrong is not going to make the advertising billboards and it kind of swept under the rug of fine print.
Of coiurse there is great support given post purchase for certain products. At the same time we have things iike the increasing cost of education, that supposedly will lead to great jobs and even potentially long lasting careers, yet at the other end of the rainbow of that picture, recent grads are finding out their position in the job market is not that great. In the meantime, they seem to have really overpaid for an education if the expectations had been that it would be almost an automatic career enhancer.
We have a financial industry worldwide that is heavily deregulated, and this game is devoid of controls meaning that whatever goes wrong a little further down the road, is somebody else's problem. Hence we have bailouts.
As a parallel to this, the bailouts could have been say environmental. Say for example, environmental controls were hugely taken off building projects. Those buider may initially profit substantially, but the environmental fallout comes a little bit later and the pollution disseminates widely, an environment crises ensues because builders wanted to make more money up front.
Then while the availability of videos for just about anything is great, it also means that anyone who can't get across there message in this economic times in a format that doesn't include videos in way behing the eight ball. The consumer taste for information has gone video.
People are having difficulty finding a viable path in terms of good finances as well do to changing signposts where many areas where you could make money are drying up due to changing markets that are real but haven't yet been fully illuminated andacclimated to by companies and individuals in terms of making some money.
Many people with great expertise and education have not quite adapted to this new rising Phoenix of mass information times 2 and have trouble getting their voice across and some dollars or equivalent flowing their way.
Multitasking has become common, as students text in class at places like Stanford U. and believe that they indeed still can handle all these tasks at one simultaneously.
Then there are many people who are doing a second or third thing work wise that is providing them a good portion of their income.
Then some of us are borrowed to the hilt, all the way down the river of debt.
In any event, if I simply do not have the money, yes I can maybe borrow it, or I just can't do some things that I legitimately would prefer to do. The same of course goes for time, as a corollary to this.
Even if I am Mr. expert, time allows only so many bets on the table, I can be working 24 hours a day on this job, and it still might not pay off it my theory about this being a market that I can hit, doesn't pay off.
If for example I want to research through 30 books and I don't have much free time available, I am simply not going to be able to do this.
And people do run into time problems, as employers feel the need to demand undivided loyalty time wise, where you might always be on clock or at least available if you want to keep this job.
So we can see that finance is a big deal, and its pursuit can involve an huge amount of time, time that may indeed not be well spent if you followed the wrong roads.
But how about personal prayer and praying about financial issues especially if you feel the issue is dragging you down in some important area?
This is a quite a broad topic, but there are some ideas to bandy about.
First off this is an area of difficulty that could be the subject of exploitation all over the place, including what you might hear from a church or preacher who might be giving prosperity message and subsequently ask for a large contribution you might not have.
The simplified message of prosperity preachers, is that if you do this, the Lord will do that. But the reality is that while the hand of the Lord is present, and there is an invitation to seek all things in prayer how the Lord is going to respond with finances cannot be precisenly known.
There are tenents to follow, such as don't rob the poor, but whatever the Lord might do for you financially, might be a personal matter that is contextual to the personal prayer relationship.
Relationship and fellowship with the Lord is not predicated on finances. You cannot buy your way into the favor of the Lord, even by donating to good causes doesn't for sure merit the Lord's favor. While it may not hurt to do things like that, it doesn't automatically follow that the Lord is going come right back with a give and take blessing.
While you may be secretly hoping that good deeds send outwards, using the idea of good sowing will lead to good reaping, there is no need to be shy about expressing this to the Lord directly.
Looking at Ezekeil chapter 29, the Lord did dry up all the channels of making money is Egypt, for a stretch and the reverse of this indicates that the Lord may bring about good finances through any number of channels.
So it is possible a deal can be brokered with the Lord, the some spiritual good deeds, such as even praying for say other countries and things like this could result in a direct financial remuneration from the Lord, even if there are no known channels out there where you are geting actually money for saying prayers, it is even possible that the Lord will channel money in exchange for things like extended prayer.
Another aspect is that in seeking financial blessings from the Lord, it is one thing to inquire of this blessing and another thing to outright demand the blessing. It is good to avoid the all or nothing mode on praying for finances, like going from not mentioning it at all, to outright demanding money or the like from the Lord.
Someone can be of great service to the Lord, and just not be that good at getting wealth.
If it is all dry land, it is better to readjust to that, as the Lord can meet you anywhere including in the desert of all forms of lack including financial.
It is a false premise that you need to be rich to be in relationship with the Lord prayer wise and you can go into the presence of the Lord even if you forgot your wallet or your prayer is not going to lack power because you can't pick up the tab for your buddies at the dinner party..
And it is true that even fabulously wealthy people can suffer complete financial fallout in any era and this is even more so true in times of financial turbulencce, and the Lord can meet them there and bring them into the next turn on the road. Renewal can be found in all forms in the presence of the Lord including financial renewal.
Ultimately in seeking financial guidance from the Lord, it can be good to get ideas from others who are also experienced and sensitive to how to pray about finances, but much of the review towards this should be in the context of a one on one prayer relationship and not looking for intermediaries who are more of less claiming that a financial blessing is routing through them to you. Lots of insincerity can seep in when people are looking for an edge in things financial.
While you don't want to overwhelm your own prayer walk with financial concerns and it is always good to keep an eye towards a balanced prayer life that includes a strong intercessory focus, it might be important to bring finances to the forefront of the prayer discussion at times.
It is also possible that the Lord will bring this issue up first. That alone tells you it is okay to discuss finances in prayer.
You might be secretly hoping for a financial blessing, but not really mentioning it to the Lord in prayer and in a sense playing coy about this in prayer. If finances are directly affecting what to you are relatively important decisions, then it is something to pray about.
And it is highly unlikely that finance is not an important matter for most people unless they are rich enough to where it isn't on their mind as much which might be a good thing.
An idea is to set aside a prayer time just for praying about finances, or to spend a significant portion of a given time in prayer on financial issues...
Sincere people can be and sometimes are indeed crimped by finances, yet this might be the last thing they would bring up in prayer, yet it is having an effect on what they can or can't do based on costs, expenses and so on.
And personal prayer is something that helps us bring about realism to issues at hand.
You really don't want to sidestep prayer, then max out a credit card and say the Lord will take care of the bills. That is not being seasoned in the ways of prayer as relating to finances.
if you don't have the money at least keep prudence around so things don't tailspin beyond that.
First off, while we are always looking for help and ideas on anything that we might be grappling with, it is still important to be able to size up the wisdom of what is being said to us, just as you are buyer beware even on what you might read in the papers. One major means of making money in this era is the stock market, but it is just an easy to lose money in the stock market and the invitation to that game doesn't highlight that strong possibility. If you can't afford to take some losses if that be the case, then the money shouldn't be out there in the gamble. The whole mortgage backed security industry, was premised on good things happening and what actually happened, was barely even mentioned in as a possibility in the press if you go back to those articles.
Financial prayers should first center on your own personal prayers or praying in conjunction with sincere prayer partners at a personal level. The loud message of prosperity preachers is not always meeting you on the ground level of your personal financial issues. While prosperity is an attractive message, you can't actually demand it from the Lord and to say that following certain steps will lead to prosperity might also be incorrect and actually be a diversion to the ways of the Lord for you as per finances. The financial ways of the Lord will be personally driven to the individual and his instructions to her might differ from his instructions to another person.
The Bible speaks of the 100 fold blessing and this seems to be taken literally when really what it is saying is the blessings will be copious, or" a lot." Indeed the Lord might give a lot of money, a lot of wealth and a lot of abundance but to say it will be 100 times is getting off topic.
Second and this applies to any personal prayer requests bring the request into the present and don't have a far off mentality to the prayer requests for which you are seeking, insights and even blessings.
Make a leap into the present in your prayer requests and discussions, especially in relation to finances. To do this, at times, put a time element into some of your prayer requests. i would like to see this happen by next Monday, or something like that. This of course also applies to intercessory. The Lord can handle time based requests. It might be that an overly persistent approach to prayer, crowds out the idea of the Lord working wonders of a short prayer, said right now and dealing with today or the next few days. We hear stories like Monica praying for St. Augustine for 20 years to convert, and how this prayer was finally answered yes. While the end result was great, you can get great answers to prayer without being persistent as per the particular prayer request. There might be a mode of praying a lot, but as far as a given specific request, it may not have to be done with persistence or over a long period of time. You still want to be praying over a long period of time, but a given matter such as financial concerns not need persitence in prayer or some long waiting period for an answer.
If you are asking for an angel to help you on an excursion today, you need that special timing for that. If I am hiking around the bears in some National Park and I ask for an angel, I surely want the timing to be in conjunction with the hike.
There can be sensitivity to asking for and being keenly aware to answers to financial prayers that are timed somewhere right about now as the Lord might have things he wants for you now that tie in to having related financial means. This is the Lord holding some sort of picture that you don't have yourself. And that is part of the essence of prayer, the Lord has pictures and big pictures that you don't have. We can only take in limited views which correspondingly can limit our finding financial opportunities.
With such a broad area as finance, you are first asking for financial blessings and or channels to find financial blessings. That financial blessing you hope is more than a dollar but be thankful for whatever the blessing might be in advance and be hopeful as to what it might contain for you.
Start with that approach rather than trying to talk something precise. While prayer is both general and specific, start with the general with the financial. People might hear all the time, if I had a million dollars. And this is a concept if brought into prayer shows confusion and even without prayer shows confusion. A million dollars if even arrived upon can be easily mismanaged or mishandled into just about nothing. The need for some wisdom doesn't dissapate with the million dollars. Then, you can't know what the bills are coming round the hill, and a million dollars doesn't carry with it a protection clause to all that go wrong in so many venues and for which we need the ongoing protection of the Lord. There indeed are so many things that might go wrong and a dollar figure arrived at doesn't change that reality.
But you do want to cite the blessing and the area of blessing, even if it is too taxing to get specific on it in your requests.
For example, if I am a farmer and asking for the blessings of rain for the crops, it would be impossible to even know with precision how many gallons of water might fall from the sky so don't try to contain a hoped for blessing into the narrow bands of your own thinking on just how this blessing should be in terms of the precise amount of rain. Most farmers are not so expert that for example they know they would need say an inch rainfall in this amount of time and that is the precise measure that is needed. . The farmer could more so start with the general request for rain that is good for the crops, without having to know exactly what the precise amount of rain needed or forthcoming might be.or should be. But first off head right into the idea of the blessing with request, praise and thanksgiving.
I don't need to know the measure of the ocean to jump in for a great swim at the beach. I don't need to know the precise force of the wave to get the gist that this is a great wave to surf in this moment.
It would be great with finances to get one lump sum of money to last a lifetime, but the issue does hang around and therefore the need to pray about it also hangs around
Thirdly, ask the Lord to get you off your high horse of holding off on whatever you are indeed delaying on.
There can be a strong delay mechanism in how you view things overall and also in the area of finances.
Someday, will be a sunny day and someday I'll have enough money to do what I want to do.
And if I keep putting that vision into the far future, the excuses seem to pile up and the whole idea gets to washing away into never land.
Also the Lord may want you to have the needed finances relating to other areas he is pouring in grace for you even in this very day. Any issue you are praying about, tie in some vines to today, even if you want to hold on to that personal vision for a bright future, you and your interests count today and this is the day the Lord has made so lets talk also about today in prayer.
While you don't want to be harsh on yourself for today's financial difficulties, you can gently guide your own prayer walk into the present and to the overall presence of many graces right now and ask the Lord to address what you believe are present needs, bringing in a more of I need this today.
If overall a river of graces are going to flow your way, why is today always going to be a trickle of graces and sowhere off into the future, much greater graces will appear.
You can hip scotch all the way down the road stepping into one miracle and another miracle one after another.
Other people you might be in conjunction with have ideas and hopes that are earmarked for the present and there needs to be a greater understanding that others have what is important to them on their present agendas, even if your willing to push off things ad infinitum and keep the hopes so distanced from the present that the seem real someday, but not today.
If soeone wants to go hiking with you today and to catch the day with you and you say in a month I'll have some money, you are compromising things from their point of view.
If it is really going to be a financial blessing, the Lord will broaden the channels on it.
The idea of looking for a precise fit or break isn't the way to look for financial blessings.
More likely the Lord in discernable ways will broaden the blessings. It isn't anything like buying a lotto ticket, getting the precise big acting role, getting some exact position in a company. It talks in Malachi Chapter 4 about the Lord opening up the windows of heaven for the blessing and this indicates broadness.
Believe that window opening from heaven also includes today. Heaven sent can include today, scary as that might be.
A fourth matter and this correlates with a today strategy, is to ask for signs for all matters financial.
These signs can include a diversity of signs. Also it is current. The Lord is watching and knows what is going on today with the flows of the rivers, and also with the man made way of doing things. .
He knows the present business ventures pro and con and the signs and signals given now from him to a praying individual will not relate to economic markets from the Middle Ages and ancient Rome.
I couldn't have been an airline pilot in 1842 and someone praying for career guidance that year wouldn't have been led into that work for example and signs leading into that wouldn't have been followed to anywhere or anything that was viable along those lines then...
And this entwines also to service for others in making money. If you are really not bringing forth something of use or value that you hope to get money for, that is also an issue as well that needs prayer as the Lord may guide you into avenues not only for the strict purposes of making money but also to bring something good to others.
Because of the concrete difficulties and also very real and concrete temptations out there in financial matters, you will need actual sign posts.
The Lord isn't going to give a big sign or signs to something that is relatively minutia and inconsequential. He wouldn't give the elephant's signs to a watering hole with a few gallons of water, when the herd is in need of water in amounts substantially more than that.
The Lord isn't going to give signs to an empty wasteland for you or the elephants.
there are signs on the road for the best this in the world or the best that in the world, but once you get there, if you follow this sign, the facts might not bear out what the sign was saying.
But the signs the Lord gives, if you can actually get there, would be leading into great things including great things financially.
The financial blessing might not just pour on your like rain in one spot as the Lord might take you on a trip or adventure towards these blessing for which you will need the signs.
There might be signs to stay away from certain routes.
You certainly need to be aware of sidestepping financial schemes, even if they are conducted under the cover of a seemingly reputable firm you might be working for.
Whether you like it or not, this is something that according to many scriptures, brings about the ire of the Lord and it is tough to get into the realm of blessing with the Lord if he is corresponding displeased with you in that very same area.
There are enough things out there that are becoming or already are illicit in terms of finances and being involved with that can actually block a real financial blessing that otherwise would have come your way.
You need signs to get on the right roads and also to sidestep the wrong roads in terms of finances and while you'll need to do your own research at times, specifically seek and ask for financial signs from the Lord.
If I go into a city to various job cites, and I am given an address this day that is relatively unfamiliar in this gigantic metro area and another address another day, I am relying on signs to find the location, whether I am routed by train, bus, car or otherwise and there are tools available online that are helpful for that but ultimately are signs to follow.
If the Lord indeed is going to bless you financially, ask for the specific, concrete signs around this, and for help going forward on the financial aspect of things.
This again points to the personal nature of financial praying, that it is going to be you looking for the signs and it is going to be you praying for the signs. Others might help, but it is still you that is finding the paths and getting on that Yellow brick road with your friend Dorothy..
The financial trails out there are certainly hazier than ever, do to rapid technological advances and also a collective attitude of greed that removes valid protection and controls on many financial based operations.
All the way back to Genesis and the story of Joseph, shows that even in largely pagan times that Lord will provide oversight in lean times.
The Lord gave Joseph a high position in Egypt that was heavily inclusive of the financiers for the known world then. The position had Joseph as the de facto leader of the grain supply for all the known world as he stored up grain for the great famine that was foretold. Joseph was the entrusted overseer of finances through all the lands.
He was an overseer representing the Lord in times of famine.
This is story carries symbolism for now, that the Lord set up oversight for people in trouble then through his representive who was Joseph and some provision for material and financial oversight will be made available in this day and age especially from emanating guidance from the one on one prayer relationship.
At the least the Lord will grant oversight to your finances, no matter how lean the times are. You can just picture that person of Joseph doing the job and coming through with the grain in the bad times and this was a man of great wisdom. Parts of being overseen finanicially with the help of the Lord is from great wisdom and add that concept into your requests for financial health, and help.
Whether this will lead to some precise reading on money, riches and so on, who knows?
There is assurances that as you pray your way through financial issues, help and oversight will be provided for the duration, Joseph was around to oversee things for all the years of the great worldwide famine and the Lord will always provide oversight to those who are seeking him for it in all sincerity. .
Those in trouble then just had to seek out Joseph and those in trouble now just need seek out the Lord and helpers directly.
But whether its angels that are the players, or whether it its the help of other good people, or the effect of your own intercessory prayers also helping you as it says in Jeremiah 29 to pray for the city and its welfare for your own sake,, the Lord can and will provide oversight and did so in the past reaching all the way back to the story of Joseph in Genesis, as the Lord indeed as was Joseph, is your brothers keeper.
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