If you’re anything like me, you intend to spend more time with the Lord throughout the day, but realize (while brushing your teeth before bed) that you forgot. You hardly talked to him all day, save a few desperate, hardly conscious “helps” and “pleases.”

How different would the day look if your thoughts and actions were constantly informed and followed by prayer and personal worship? What if you were actively thanking God for his blessings as they came? Thanking God for who he is and what he’s done is what a personal weekly personal worship rhythm is all about. 

Implementing spiritual disciplines into your workday can assist you in building this spiritual muscle of daily personal worship. Your hard work and intentionality will pay off. Knowing that there is no true sacred/secular divide, integrating practices for spiritual growth into your day will build a bridge from home and church into your everyday life.

All spiritual disciplines have core, underlying concepts that can be carried over into various situations. With a bit of creativity, your workplace can be a place of personal prayer and worship.

In her Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun categorizes various spiritual disciplines with the acronym WORSHIP:

• Worship God
• Open myself to God
• Relinquish the false self and idols of my heart
• Share my life with others
• Hear the word of God
• Incarnate Christ’s love for the world (You may be the only Jesus some people see)
• Pray to God

These categories provide helpful classifications for each discipline based on the desired outcomes they foster.

Where to begin? Great question!

Below is a sampling of practices with ideas for how to integrate them into the workplace.

Gratitude

Related disciplines include thankfulness, celebration, and journaling. Use breaks in your workday to refocus. Keep a journal or notepad to record what you are grateful for. Record things worthy of celebration, offering up a prayer of thankfulness to God. Take some time on your lunch break to journal about the first half of the day. What went well? What could have gone better? How have you been keeping company with Jesus? How can you better focus your eyes on him as the day continues?

Put visual reminders around your workspace of God’s blessings in your life. These can be sticky notes with verses or photos of people you love, or a “gratitude list.” Thank him throughout the day as you are reminded of his goodness and faithfulness.

Slowing Down

In our fast-paced society, everything has to be done right now. It’s no wonder taking space to notice how God is at work can be a struggle in the midst of a chaotic day.

Focus on one task at a time. Rather than slowing down your pace—unless that truly is necessary!—be productive, efficient, and focused by giving attention to one task at a time. At lunchtime, eat slowly. On your commute, try driving in the right lane.

Slowing down enables us to take notice, to allow for margin, to see God at work in the “little things” as well as the “big.” Merely rushing from one thing to the next can be unhealthy as it hardly leaves room for attending to the significance of what has just occurred. Pause to reflect for a minute or two between various tasks on the job, processing and attaining closure while preparing for what is next.

Silence

As most jobs involve verbal communication with other people, these disciplines can be especially fruitful and appropriate in the workplace. Listen more and speak less in meetings. Give people your complete, undivided attention. Ask coworkers about their weekends without a felt need to talk about your own. Spend your breaks, lunch hour, or commute without any “noise.” (Turn off the music, put down the book, stop playing the games; get alone—sit in the silence).

Practicing the Presence of God

Brother Lawrence addresses this in his book The Practice of the Presence of God. This 17th-century Carmelite monk is well known for his endearing devotion to the Lord, even in his daily, menial tasks. Practice God’s presence at work by talking with Jesus as you go about your projects. Apologize and ask his forgiveness when you slip up. Thank him for his presence and his love. Remember that he is a constant companion.

Prayer

Prayer is broad, as it encompasses a wide array of specific ways of talking to God. Some work-friendly options include:

• Breath Prayer—This practice is founded upon the praying of “a simple, intimate prayer of heartfelt desire before God.” Choose a prayer, such as “Jesus, have mercy on me,” to pray throughout the day. Use your breath as a reminder of this prayer. Breathe in—“Jesus,” and breathe out—“have mercy on me.”
• Centering Prayer— This practice is “to quiet the heart and rest in God alone.” During breaks or between tasks, use the available time to “center” yourself, refocusing your attention to the Lord.
• Fixed-Hour Prayer— Plan a schedule that fits well in your workday, pausing at scheduled times to pray for a few minutes. For many of us, if it’s not in our calendar, it doesn’t happen. Calendar it!

Give these five practices a try. Prayer and Worship go hand in hand. Worship is so much more than singing songs. How we live our everyday life is our greatest expression of Worship. Let’s grow together in some daily practices that will take our relationship with Jesus to a deeper level!

Feel free to email me at   if you feel like you’d like to take it even further. There are a TON of valuable resources that spur growth in our daily spiritual lives. I’d love to share them with you!