Are you praying for more income and more money?
Today, I want to encourage you to pray for this one thing instead.
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One God Idea
As I coach and help people, I also invest in mentoring and coaching for myself.
Recently, one of my mentors talked about this particular subject, and it was really powerful. It’s something I’ve seen in my life, and I wanted to share it with you.
Many times, as authors or entrepreneurs, we may be praying for more money, more book sales, or more of this and that. We need money to pay the bills, to hire an editor, or to simply do what God has called us to do.
However, instead of simply praying for more money, I want you to consider praying for ideas. Interesting concept, right?
Pray for an idea because a God idea can birth something so amazing and so powerful. It can provide the finances and the resources that you desperately need. When you also start praying this way, it makes you open to receiving those God ideas. It makes you open to receiving those things from God that He has for you.
As my mentor was talking about this it reminded me of something I’ve read in Mark Batterson’s book, “Draw the Circle”. It is a 40-day prayer challenge. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. It’s amazing!
It’s a 40-day challenge, and once you go through this, I really think you’ll start to think differently, pray differently, and it’s a really powerful thing. So I definitely recommend the book.
On day eight the chapter is titled, “One God Idea”. This is exactly what we’re talking about in this training.
The author talks about George Washington Carver, and how he introduced the concept of crop rotation. It didn’t revive the economy the way he thought it was going to. There was an abundant supply of peanuts rotting in warehouses.
So, he routinely would get up in the morning, walk around, and pray with God. During that time, God gave him that God idea of how he was going to take that peanut and this problem. It’s an idea of how he turned it around into income and economy for the United States.
I’m not going to read the whole thing to you, but it says on the book,
“On January 20th, 1921 George Washington Carver testified before the House Ways and Means committee and they told him he had ten minutes. Well, an hour and forty minutes later the committee told Carver he could come back whenever he wanted and take as much time as he needed. He mesmerized the committee by demonstrating a myriad of ingenious uses for the peanut; everything from glue, to shaving cream, soap, insecticides, cosmetics, wood stains, fertilizers, linoleum, and Worcestershire sauce. He says, “One God idea is worth more than a thousand good ideas.”
Does anyone else have chills? Oh my goodness! I have chills! This is the way God works
When there is a problem, a situation, or if there is a lack, we can come to Him and ask Him for the inspiration, ideas, and for what He has for us for that situation. Not every situation is going to turn out like it did for George Washington Carver, but what if it does?
What if you press in, you pray and ask God for the ideas, creativity, and the things that you cannot come up with on your own? What would be possible?
George Washington Carver changed the entire way we see a peanut and the way a peanut is used because he was willing to pray, listen to God, and then take action.
Encouragement
So, I encourage you today. If you’re discouraged, or if sales aren’t as good as you want them to be or if you need income and finances to pay bills, ask God for His provision. Or when you need a new car like we do, or if there is something else that you need, first of all, pray. Yes!
But pray, and also ask God for ideas. Ask Him for creativity or for ways that you may be able to earn the income and bring forth that income through the talents, gifts, and abilities He has given you.
Some of my very best book launches would have never happened had I followed the world’s standards of book launches or my own typical book launch training.
Sometimes God will ask you to do things that are out of the box and are not what marketing experts say to do.
You know what? When I did the things that I felt that God was telling me to do, those were some of my most successful book launches.
So be willing to press in and to ask God for those ideas. Let me pray for you right now.
Prayer
“God, I thank You for every single person listening to this training right now. Lord, I feel your Holy Spirit just surging through me as I share this topic. Right now, I know You are bringing a changed mind and a transformation in the way some people are seeing money.
Instead of just focusing on lack and scarcity, they will focus on You and on asking You to provide not only just the money but the ideas. They will be asking you to provide creativity, and ways that they can use their gifts and abilities to earn income and the money they need.
Lord, I just thank You for blessing each one of us. Thank you for blessing us with gifts, talents, and with money that we can be blessed to be a blessing. I pray that You would give us ideas. I pray we would pray and seek and press in for that God idea. I pray that we would ask you and that we would be open to listening.
I pray that You would give each one of us Lord, those ideas that are going to work best for us in our situation. We pray for those ideas that would work best with our gifts, abilities, and resources. Lord, thank You. Thank You for God ideas. Thank You for the creativity and thank You for the fact that You speak to us today through your Holy Spirit.
Your sheep hear Your voice. We can hear from You even in our business, our books, and our book ideas. Lord, I just thank You that we can hear from You, and I pray that we would be discerners of what we’re hearing too; that we would put aside the things that are either our ideas or the enemies.
We pray that we can ignore the, “you need to this, this, this, this, this, this, this,” and the bright shiny objects syndrome. Lord, we pray that we would be able to focus on the God idea and we would know that this is where we have to focus on; this is what we need to do.
Lord, I just thank You. I thank You for providing. I thank You for the ideas and thank You for your presence. I just thank You that you care about our books, our income, and our business. I thank You for this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
End Note
I would love to hear from you on how this training encouraged you. Let me know what you plan to do to take action based upon this; maybe how your prayer life changes or how your paradigm of how you pray and ask God for provision changes.
Please just leave me a comment.
If you are looking for a community of Christian authors and entrepreneurs to connect with, I would love to invite you to my group coaching program, Author Audience Academy. You can find more at http://www.authoraudienceacademy.com/. Or if you’d like to get a taste of my teachings in even more depth, check out my webinars.
You can find it at trainingauthors.com/free-training-christian-writers/, as well as all my free training.
I hope you have a great day. Be blessed, and I will see you next time!
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Have Comments or Questions?
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Janis Cox says
Love that book by Mark Batterson. Wish I hadn’t left it in Canada. I read the book and did the 40 day Prayer Challenge last summer.
Blessings
Janis
Shelley Hitz says
It’s such a great book and definitely one you can read over and over 🙂
Yvonne says
Thanks so much for this! It really blessed me and changed the way I’ll pray for now on! Blessings Shelley!
Shelley Hitz says
You’re very welcome Yvonne!
Jennifer Nelson says
Thank you for this reminder – God ideas are so much better than good ideas. I will be more focused on praying for clarity of all the ideas He gives me, which one to focus on in this season.
Shelley Hitz says
You’re very welcome!