Nine Ways to Pray for Your Pastor
Whether you attend a small church or a mega church, whether you worship in a traditional setting or an environment that eschews traditional church buildings, whether your church has one pastor or too many to count, your pastor needs prayer.
Too often pastors and other church workers are afraid to ask for prayer. They don’t wish to appear vulnerable or weak. We tend to put our pastors on a pedestal and isolate them from prayer partners and accountability partners. Then we seem shocked when they fall. Pastors are human and, like you and I, suffer human temptations. They need our prayers.
The Pastoral Epistles make a great guide to praying for our pastors. Below are nine ways we may pray for our pastors.
- Pray that your pastor may "not neglect the gifts that were given" him or her (1 Timothy 4:14). Pray that your pastor may use his or her gifts boldly, with love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:6-7).
- Pray that he or she teaches sound doctrine (1 Timothy 4:16, 2 Timothy 2:15, Titus 1:2).
- Pray that he or she may maintain sound moral footing (Titus 2:7-8)
- Pray that he or she bathe themselves in prayer (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
- Pray that he or she find contentment (1 Timothy 6:6-10).
- Pray that he or she retain their faith and remain Christ-like (1 Timothy 6:11-12, 2 Timothy 2:22).
- Pray that he or she steer clear of senseless controversies (2 Timothy 2:23).
- Pray that he or she is prepared to be persecuted because of their godliness. That God will equip him or her for every good work (2 Timothy 3:12-17).
- Pray that he or she will stay true to his or her call (2 Timothy 4:5).
Pray for your pastor daily. You may never know, this side of heaven, how your prayers are answered, but they will be answered.