Saying Less – Praying More

Saying less and praying more can be a powerful tool in navigating workplace relationships.

Sometimes, in my professional career, an internal angst rises up in me. The source of agitation could be an organizational decision, the distributing of responsibility, or just plain personality conflicts.

Whatever the trigger point was, I, in the past, expended a lot of energy talking about it.

I talked about it with my friends.

I talked about it with my husband.

Once, I even talked about it with my pastor.

With each retelling, the problem grew bigger and bigger and BIGGER, until the problem was so enormous that even the smallest disagreement seemed like a world war.

Has anything like that ever happened to you?

You see your manager speaking in hushed tones,andyour imagination whirs, wondering ifyou might be in trouble.

Paranoia?

Perhaps.

But, in today’s volatile economy with job loss so rampant,fear sets in.

Your heart flutters.

Your palms sweat.

Before you know it you’ve convinced yourself that catastrophe awaits.

Ridiculous right?

Especially so, when the whole thing turns out to be nothing.

This type of scenario has happened to me more times than I care to share.

I have learned that, if we are not careful, our imagination and overactive mouths can turn

a small, and usually incorrect, presumption into an emotional minefield.

When that happens, the enemy of our soul does the happy dance because that was what he was trying to accomplish in us. That was the reason why he planted the seed of worry or fear or doubt in us to begin with.

I wonder if that’s the kind of presumptuous sins that the Psalmist was talking about in Psalm 19:13 that says:

“Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.”

Maybe, we would be able to say less and pray more if we started praying that prayer more often.

“God, help me not to presume anything. Teach me to look to YOU, the author and finisher of my faith. To rest in the comfort that your promises are yea and Amenand that you will always watch over me and go before me in any and all of my life situations.”

I have learned from my own hard experiences that praying more and saying less brings much more peace, joy, and contentment in my life.

What about you?

How do you handle things when life’s presumptions come crashing down on your imagination?

Again, the Holy Bible equips us with an appropriate response to the wild ruminating we are sometimes prone to:

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

I particularly like the way The Message translation explains the meaning of the above verse:

“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”

What are your ‘go to’ scriptures when life’s imaginations threaten to dominate your mind?