A Prayer Before Work
The Bible takes ordinary work seriously. Colossians 3:23 doesn't say to work heartily at meaningful or significant things — it says whatever you do. This prayer is for before the workday begins: a few words to orient the hours ahead toward something larger than a to-do list.
Prayer
Lord, before I begin — a word.
The work in front of me today is ordinary, in the sense that most days are ordinary: tasks to complete, problems to solve, people to work with or serve. Nothing dramatic.
Help me do it well.
Not just efficiently, not just to meet expectations, but actually well — with care, with honesty, with the kind of effort that doesn't cut corners because no one is looking.
Let me work as if for you today. Which I've been told I should, and which I often forget. Remind me.
Where I have authority or influence, let me use it fairly. Where I'm under authority, let me work faithfully. Where I work alongside others, let me be someone who's good to work with — patient, reliable, honest.
And at the end of it, let me have done something worth doing.
Amen.
This prayer is deliberately short — it's for before work, not for extended contemplation. It draws on the Colossians 3:23 idea of working "as for the Lord," which reframes ordinary work as having an audience beyond the immediate task. The three-part structure in the middle — authority over, under, and alongside — covers most work relationships.
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Scripture behind this prayer
Colossians 3:23
"And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men,"
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord — the verse this prayer centres on.
Genesis 2:15
"Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it."
God put the man in the garden to work it — work as part of the original design.
Proverbs 14:23
"In all hard work there is profit, but the talk of the lips leads only to poverty."
In all toil there is profit — honest work has real value.
Ecclesiastes 9:10
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going."
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
Matthew 25:21
"“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’"
Well done, good and faithful servant — faithfulness, not just results.
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