Prayer : Re Joblessness

Prayer is an on-going conversation, on the grounds of God’s character, kingdom, provision, forgiveness, guidance and deliverance, that starts in the hidden place and moves into active involvement – God’s, and ours – in the publicly visible place.

It starts by changing us, and ends by changing the world: securing internal breakthroughs first, and then external breakthroughs on the back of this preparation.

What might it look like to enter into such a conversation with God concerning endemic joblessness?

Character: adopted and apprenticed...

Kingdom: having a purpose, a valuable contribution to make...

Provision: miraculous provision of work in a workplace wilderness...

Forgiveness: for wrong attitudes towards work; and for those who have failed to provide for work...

Guidance: towards taking a place in work, in job-creation, in improving workplace conditions...

Deliverance: from the prison of endemic joblessness...

What might it look like to enter into such a conversation with God concerning endemic joblessness? And where might such conversations end up?

This would be the sort of serious imaginative work Christians have taken on in previous generations – think evangelical workplace/education reform bills through Victorian parliaments; and Quaker model urban villages – and still take on today – think Tearfund, and other NGOs. But, more than as individuals or even para-church networks, this is the sort of serious imaginative work we need to take on as local congregations...