SAVING
HOBBY LOBBY

Topics: Business; Despair; Discouragement; Growth; Help from God; Overcoming; Security in God

References: Psalm 91:15; Isaiah 65:24; Matthew 7:7; Luke 18:1–8; John 14:13–14; 15:7; Philippians 4:6

In the offices of his multimillion-dollar hobby and craft business, Hobby Lobby, David Green read the bad news: the bank was ready to foreclose on the product of years of his life and labor. In 1986, Hobby Lobby wasn’t the only business in trouble. The oil business in Oklahoma had gone bust, and the overextended banks were failing. Many business owners in Oklahoma City had already closed their doors in defeat and declared bankruptcy.

Although the foreclosure of the business was the worst thing he could imagine, Green came to see it as a defining moment in his spiritual life. “I know I prayed prior to that time, but that’s when I got really serious about it,” he said.

The space beneath his desk became his prayer closet. He would crawl under his desk in his corporate office and seek God’s help. It was God’s response to those prayers for their business that the family believes pulled the company out from under looming bankruptcy and set it on its feet again.

Hobby Lobby was projected to produce more than $1.5 billion in sales throughout 2006.

—Suzanne Jordan Brown, “Prayer-Driven Enterprise,” Pray! (July–August 2006)