This blog post is shared with us by Missy Wallace whose church, Christ Presbyterian Church, often leads vocational prayers for its members and wider community in Nashville. However, the words of this prayer ring true for entrepreneurs everywhere.We are grateful to them for sharing it with FDE, and we hope it is encouraging to you as it was to us.

A Vocational Prayer for Entrepreneurs

Dear Lord,

As we come to you to honor vocations as a way our people serve you in the world, we are thankful for those who feel a calling to start new things - new businesses, new products, and new initiatives.  

Entrepreneurs are like artists  - and perhaps more than any other vocation have the opportunity to model what God did in Genesis, create something out of nothing, bring structure out of chaos, and hope to call it good. Lord, it is a great honor to create things and that creative gift comes from you.  We thank you for those with the wiring, the risk tolerance, and the willingness to create. We ask for your help with the incredible stress and isolation that can come from this calling as they dream about products and processes, adjust plans, seek funding, serve customers, create cultures, and find ways to sustainability.

Lord,  we know that like all, entrepreneurs are broken and they also work in broken systems.  We ask for forgiveness for the the particular areas of brokenness that can plague entrepreneurism -  such as confusing aspiration and reality, over-work, greed, excessive anxiety, and treating people transactionally.  Please protect these workers from these pitfalls and forgive them when they make their work their idol.

Lord - entrepreneurs have the incredible opportunity to bring redemption to the world in the way they love people, places and systems to life.  Whether it is the way they care for suppliers, customers, and place, choose policies that honor the integrity of employees, and find ways to seek a redemptive edge in all processes, we ask for your Spirit to infuse the process.  We ask that each entrepreneur see their undertaking as a way to love and worship you as they create.

Lord, we thank you for each and every entrepreneur in our city - because the best way to change culture is to create new culture.  And these people are creators. We ask you to use them as part of your story for [insert city] Nashville beyond. We ask that they know that you are their ultimate savior, not what they create. 

In your son’s name, Amen.

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[Special thanks to Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash for the cover photo]