What’s your dream job?
Maybe your best job isn’t really about you.
Psalm 127:1 (NIV)
Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
If God isn’t behind it, it will never be a great job.
There’s nothing like the shelter of a steady paycheck. Lots of people have the ability, perseverance and good ideas to successfully run their own businesses. What they lack is start-up money.
There are places in the world where just a few American dollars can start or expand a profitable venture. Many Christian ministries offer loans or gifts in the name of Christ.
Christian Aid Ministries calls their program SALT: Shared Accountability, Lending, and Teaching. They use microloans, savings groups and agricultural and vocational training:
“Our goal is to walk alongside clients, helping them use the resources God has placed in their care and teaching them the importance of following Jesus in everyday life.”
Lord, you used a bit of bread and few fish to feed thousands. Use a bit of money and few eager hearts to provide safe and steady incomes in countless impoverished places.
Proverbs 16:18 (MSG)
First pride, then the crash—
the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.
Be humble and land gently.
I don’t remember who said this, but the message stays with me:
We humans often take credit for God’s work.
We think, “Praise us from whom all blessings flow.”
Been there, done that.
I was wrong, Lord.
The credit is all yours.
Ever been knocked down, then kicked? Pushed over and stepped on?
If you find yourself in a pit–due to your own poor choice or someone else’s deliberate action–you can look to God for a hand up.
Psalm 40:2 (NIV)
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
Hold tight. We have an uplifting God.
Proverbs 24:17-18 (ESV)
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.
Matthew 5:44-45
I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
No gloating.
Are you guilty of these not-nice actions?
The prophet Ezekiel prophesied disaster for nations doing these things.
(from Ezekiel 25, 29, 31 – MSG)
Because you cheered when my Sanctuary was desecrated . . .
Because the Philistines were so spitefully vengeful . . .
Because you said, “It’s my Nile. I made it” . . .
Because it skyscrapered upward, piercing the clouds, swaggering and proud . . .
Not nice for a nation—not so good in people either.
Joseph and Daniel are Old Testament examples of godly advisors to heads of state. Surely there are many men and women of God behind the scenes in national, state and local government.
Capitol Ministries is one organization working to make disciples of Jesus Christ in the political arena.
“We are following God’s command to reach the leaders of our troubled world—for only through obedience to God is true hope and change possible.”
Let’s support them with prayer.
Lord God, we pray for the Christian men and women who work in government in the US and around the world. May the godly wisdom they offer be respected and valued. Open doors for Capitol Ministries and other organizations as they work to establish Bible study and prayer groups in every capitol.
I can send a prayer anywhere–
1 Timothy 2:1 (MSG)
Pray every way you know how,
for everyone you know.
I can send my prayers off to the White House, into the secret corners of North Korea, over crowded slums, behind jailhouse bars, into the halls of the school down the street. There’s nowhere my prayer can’t go.
“The more praying there is in the world,
the better the world will be;
the mightier the forces against evil everywhere.“
E.M. Bounds, 1835-1913
