Prayer for Contentment

Financial difficulty is a reality faced by millions of people in the world. There’s precious little money for the essentials—things like food, rent, and car repairs—and luxuries like eating out and going to the movies have become a rarity in many households.

But fear not. God has your back, and He’s already given you the key to prosperity: prayer. But this isn’t just a matter of asking God for money. There’s more to prayer than that.

Fortunately, Christ gave us a template for effective prayer in what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, found in Matthew 6:9-13. Let’s take a look at how the Son of God says we should pray.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Amen.”

Notice something about Jesus’ example? Here’s the secret to effective prayer: it’s focused more on God than on us. It’s your will be done. It’s your kingdom come. And the words that are directed at us mention not riches, but “daily bread”.

Now, this doesn’t mean that, as Christians, we’re doomed to lives of poverty. It simply means that we need to shift our perspective a little, and pray for financial success in the context of our service to God—instead of wanting money for that new BMW, we need to want it so that we can give to the poor. We need to want it so that we can more easily do God’s work in the world.

That mental shift isn’t an easy one to make, though, so let’s look at this effective example of prayer that will draw financial success through following Jesus’ example.

Contentment is incredibly important. When Paul wrote, in Phillipians 4:13, that “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me,” he didn’t mean that he would be magically empowered to overcome any obstacle.

No—what Paul meant was that he could be content through all things, that he can remain focused on God’s mission through the hardest of times. When you do this, when you can remain content and thankful, God may bless you in unexpected ways.

Prayer:

Dear Lord,

Please grant me the strength to be content, to be able to accept my world and circumstances as they are.
Please remove from me my worries and anxieties about money, and replace them with faith in You.
I trust You completely, and I trust that You will take care of me and my family.

I will release negativity and worry, and focus on the blessings You have provided, Lord. Thank you so much for what You have given us.

Amen.

Unexpected Prosperity

Prosperity can mean many things, as you can see from the Biblical narrative. It might mean that you are simply provided with the essentials. It might mean that you are made a king. But usually, it’s something in between.

But if you pray for these things, you’ll foster the kind of heart that attracts the blessing of financial prosperity. When you are able to let go of the self and embrace your glorious purpose in God’s kingdom, you’ll find that anything is possible.