Lord of all peoples, I have read most of the recommendations for negotiations.  What seems clear is that agreements that benefit both parties seem to last the longest.  The only win-lose that You have engaged in is with death and with evil.   You have vanquished both.  I am not looking for win-lose but mutual benefit.  To that end, please help us with empathy.   Give both parties a window into the feelings and actual needs of the other.   Please help with honesty. Save us from unreliable financials.  I understand that timing can be important and that when you disclose may be as important as what you disclose.   But I don’t wish to manipulate as much as to facilitate.  I hope that mutual respect may make the negotiation fair and the results balanced and effective.

Guide me when the other party is not to be trusted.  Shall I pull out?  Shall I play hardball and guard our position?   How much of their bluster is positioning or springs from learning a flawed approach?   Help me to directly name their bluster while maintaining my “Cool.”   I understand the proper expression of anger.   Let me show my displeasure without personally attacking the other, but let me be clear.  When it comes down to it, let me not let dishonesty win out.  May my confident response to dishonesty eventually lead to a peaceful ending or a discontinued negotiation.

Section 2, Scripture: Proverbs 3:27-35; Luke 18:1-8

Hebrew Scripture

New Testament

27 Do not withhold any goods from the owner when it is in your power to act. 28 Say not to your neighbor, “Go, come back tomorrow, and I will give it to you,” when all the while you have it. 29Do not plot evil against your neighbors, when they live at peace with you. 30Do not contend with someone without cause, with one who has done you no harm. 31Do not envy the violent and choose none of their ways: 32To the LORD the devious are an abomination, but the upright are close to him. 33The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, but the dwelling of the just he blesses; 34Those who scoff, he scoffs at, but the lowly he favors. 35The wise will possess glory, but fools will bear shame. Proverbs 3:27-35

The Parable of the Persistent Widow.1 Then he told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, 2 “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’4 For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, 5 because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’”6 The Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.7 Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? 8 I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Luke 18: 1-8

Section 3
You may wish to be silent for a few minutes.

Section 4
In your own words, in your own silence, speak to God.