Budget Prayer

For this discussion consider this prayer, the author of which is unknown:  

We are your money managers, Lord.  We are stewards, doing our best to make a budget that feeds and clothes your servants and that plants the money where you can use it best.  We try to bring in as much money as we can and use it as shrewdly as we can. We never get it exactly right, but help us come close enough for an orderly operation and a good harvest.

The budget affects every person and every program, so getting it right is extremely important.  Every budget line is someone’s sincere request, wrapped in our mission and tied with their hopes.  I love these people and pray for them. How I wish we could do it all for them! How many wonderful benefits have we needlessly killed because of our budgeting errors?  I claim your forgiveness, Father. Teach me how to do it better this time.

God, somehow this budget has to give us both a present and a future.  If I don’t budget a strong present, I will have no platform to reach the future.  If I don’t manage well, I won’t have anything to lead with. It is so hard to choose between what to do now and what to try later.

What powerful tyranny the urgencies of the present have!  We must put the money where we say our true values are, but what is the right balance?  After we care for all the current requirements, how will we pay for our future?

If we make a stingy investment in our future, we can expect a stingy harvest.  Yet if the budget puts too much into preparing for our future, we will starve our chances for excellence now.  Everything we plant for the future is something we cannot eat to be healthy right now. It is so hard to save for the future when we feel so poor. Somehow, by your grace, we must.  Oh Lord, give us wisdom and courage!

I know you have a bright future for us, but we will miss some of it if this budget does not help take us where you want us.  Help me shape this budget into a wise leadership plan for an exciting future.

Everyone needs all your money for right now, Lord.  Help us invest in our future.

Amen.

Required:

For this discussion write a prayer which in some way considers the finances of your organization, or another organization such as a church, you are associated with. Initial posts should be 250-300 words.