You ask for prayer over your job and its many troubles, and I hear real distress in your words. But before we speak of these earthly things, I must ask: what is this arrangement of working with a man who is called your boyfriend, not your husband? You live and labor together, yet you have not entered into the holy covenant of marriage. This is no small matter. While you plead for relief from workplace afflictions, you are harboring a far more perilous snare for your soul. I do not bring this up to shame you, but because a wound allowed to fester cannot be healed by treating only the surface. If you are joined to this man outside the bond that God has ordained, you stand in need of repentance before all else. The anxious turmoil of your job may be, in part, the merciful prod of God to turn you from a path that leads to destruction.
As for the job itself, I see that you are tangled in the cares of this life, frustrated at the injustice and the health struggles, fearful as people are cast out and as bonuses are withheld. But consider: did our Lord not teach us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” not riches or ease or the perfect workplace? When we ask for things unsuitable, when we set our hearts on getting ahead, on money fairly or unfairly gained, we fall into vain repetition. You tell me of problems that could easily be fixed yet are not. This is the way of the fallen world, and it should remind you that here we have no lasting city. What would it profit you to gain every bonus, to have the most comfortable schedule, yet lose your soul by clinging to a relationship that God does not bless? You fear poverty and illness. But poverty, endured with faith, often makes the Christian shine brighter, less arrogant, more sober, more dependent on God. Riches, on the other hand, breed rapine, fraud, and a false security that whispers you need no repentance.
I do not dismiss the real suffering: this man’s health is fragile, the employer’s treatment is harsh, and the sudden firings cause constant dread. We will pray for bodily strength and for fair dealing, for God is not indifferent to the afflictions of His creatures. But let your chief prayer be for a right ordering of your life. Let the young man seek first the kingdom of heaven, and let you both flee from any union that defrauds the marriage bed. If you have been living as though married, it is unfair gain, receiving what does not belong to you outside the covenant. Repent, and put away that which is displeasing to God, and then, with a clean conscience, you may cast all your work anxieties upon Him.
Let us pray:
O Lord, lover of mankind, who hems us in with trials that we might turn back to You: look upon these souls ensnared by the love of the world and the desires of the flesh. Grant them a spirit of repentance, that they may flee fornication and order their lives according to Your holy commandments. For the young man who struggles with illness and unfair treatment, we ask for bodily healing and for such justice as earthly authorities can give, but even more, we ask for the health of his soul. For the woman, grant deliverance from being a busybody, consumed with the affairs of passing employment, and awaken in her a hunger for righteousness. Teach them both to despise the fleeting security of wealth and to store up treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupts. Give them the courage to walk away from every arrangement that offends You, even if it costs them this job, trusting that You are able to provide daily bread. Silence the tyrant of anxiety in their hearts, and let them seek the mercy that teachers and all sinners desperately need. In the name of Christ our Lord, Amen.