Pray for your pastor

There are so many reasons to pray for your pastor. He stands before crowds large and small who are listening.

When he gets the words right, he comforts the hurting and shines a light in darkness and clears a path for the lost. When he gets it right, he shows people Jesus, gives them hope, and helps them stand.

But when he gets it wrong, he can hurt people in ways they may never recover from, simply because they trust him in the deepest and most personal matters of life.

• Pray for your pastor’s words. Every day, people come to his office seeking advice about personal matters, issues on which he may or may not have a clue.
• Pray for your pastor’s purity. His television brings in the same channels as yours. He has the same temptations to impurities in thought we all face.
• Pray for your pastor’s choices. Should he answer the phone tonight or let it ring? Respond to a need or stay home with the family? Spend his morning in the study or in the community knocking on doors? Confront the troublemaker in the church or leave him to the Lord?
• Pray for your pastor’s attitude. Better he always think of himself as the servant of the servants, always giving thanks that the Father chose to put such an unworthy one in such a place of service, and always looking for ways to bless those around him.

Luke 17:10 provides every one of us, particularly us pastors, with the best statement of who we are and what we are about: I am only an unworthy servant just doing my job.

Pray for your pastor, friend. So much depends on it.

—Joe McKeever

 EDITOR’S NOTE — Adapted from an article originally posted at joemckeever.com.