Starting today, I began praying for a significant career change in my life through a 40-day prayer challenge. Our entire congregation is reading one chapter a day from the book The Circle Maker by American pastor Mark Batterson, learning to cultivate a prayer habit and practice drawing circles of prayer. It feels like God is telling me to pray at precisely the right moment. Just as the seemingly impregnable walls of Jericho fell after seven days of circling the city in prayer, I too intend to pray over three things: the bureaucracy, inefficiency, and irresponsibility within government agencies. Though it may seem like an impossible Jericho, I believe it will ultimately fall. Starting today, I begin each day with prayer.

Day 4 of the 40-day dedicated prayer. Each morning, I watch the rising sun briefly, read one chapter of a book, pray for a moment, and start my day. Surprisingly, I feel a sense of peace building within me and the power of prayer accumulating. Taking on the role of global business team leader, which doesn’t suit me, I’ve spent this week immersed in continuous government reports. Understanding the perspectives of management and how they view startups has left me conflicted, caught between reality and my ideals (or perhaps greed). I wonder if adapting to a workplace environment truly means this. Watching managers who are hard to understand or persuade, feelings of judgment and discontent keep surfacing. Yet surprisingly, perhaps thanks to prayer, my heart remains peaceful. Even while writing meaningless reports all night, I find myself energized and unwearied.

Today while reading, a phrase caught my eye: “The first step in prayer is not changing the environment, but changing myself first.” This brought deep realization. As I change, I see that environment more objectively; pointless emotional drain disappears, and I feel ability emerging within this peace. Meditating on today’s QT passage, I encountered the scene where Jesus drove a legion of demons into a herd of pigs to save one soul. Though He displayed astonishing power, the people, fearful and seeing their property damaged, sent Him away. I began my day reflecting: Isn’t leaving a place after exerting such immense influence the destiny of great leaders?

Luke 8:36-37

Those who had witnessed everything from the beginning told the people how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the residents of the region around Gerasa begged Jesus to leave them, for they were seized with great fear. So Jesus got into the boat and started to return.