Father GOD, thank you for this new day that you have given us. Thank you for this workplace which for me has always been a door that you opened for me and everyone whose life has been touched directly or indirectly by me and my colleagues working here.

With everything we do, there has been an element of you Holy Spirit whether it is in solving a challenge, developing a product, crafting a service line or fitting in a value add service that was supposed to improve the financial performance or business environment we operate in.

For some reason we are now at a time when management is being forced to implement cost reduction measures that include some of us losing jobs, or facing salary and benefits cuts. Indeed it is hard and for some of my colleagues, unfathomable that they will go home and tell their families that they are serving a notice.

Today I choose to stand in the gap for my colleagues and I. Lord, because of the circumstances, the restructuring is not only imminent, it is inevitable as per the many meetings that have been set up. One thing that reigns more truthful than this planned event is your awareness of this situation - its genesis, the modalities being applied by the management team to decide who will stay and who will leave, the future for those who will be let go and for those who will stay.

As your child, Father I stand on the platform of grace and pray that even for those who don’t know you, you know what this employment means for them. Your word is clear that no door that you have opened can be shut by anyone and no door you shut can be opened by anyone. For those O Lord who need to move on, May you open their eyes to see the new door you have for them. May they keep their hearts clean of bitterness or anger or a murmuring spirit. I pray that their hearts will be engulfed by your blanket of peace - peace that surpasses all human understanding because that is the foundation they need to guard their hearts.

I pray for their dependents who may be inclined to find fault or find an explanation about the layoff or salary reductions. In that journey, May they instead find and hear the wisdom of the Holy Spirit pointing to a better way as your scripture says, in Isaiah 30:21 “whether you turn to the right or to the left, they will hear a voice saying, ‘this is the road! Now follow it.’ ”

Lord I pray for those of the household of Christ Jesus that will also be given termination letters. May they confess the promises of those that believe and are called by your name. May they know that the light never fades in the hearts and lives of those that call you Father. I pray that they will seek Your Face and that they will stand on the words of David when he said “I have been young and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread”.

For those that will feel like you are punishing them or meting out judgment, May they remember that you are a God of mercy, a God of favor and most of all that you O Lord do not enjoy sending grief or pain. I pray that they guard their hearts not to give the enemy a toehold on which he can sow the seeds of depression and self condemnation. I pray your children will stand firm in the awareness of who they are in Christ and what they have in you:

That they are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus in all circumstances

That all things work together for good for they that love Him and are called according to His purposes

That You O God will perfect the work You have begun in them

That they are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing

That they have a purpose

That they have access to the incomparable riches of your grace O God

That they are complete in you

That they are qualified to share in the inheritance of Christ Jesus because the blood of Jesus redeemed them from the curse of the law.

I pray that Lord, your children going through this restructuring process, whether they lose their income or not, will grasp how wide, how long, how high, how deep, how accessible Christ’s love is for them. May they be certain of Your truths O God, and the lifestyle that you have called them to.

Thank you Lord for hearing me. You have given us freedom and confidence to pray from the right hand seated with Christ in the heavenly places and I know you will answer my prayer.

In Jesus name I pray.