I hope today you’ll take some time to pray for your pastors, for the elders at your church, and for those leading Bible studies in your communities.

I remember last year when a women’s group I am in (on Facebook) was asking questions and wanted to know something that we struggled with and I told them that I didn’t have a problem getting up at 5 a.m. every morning to pray for my pastor’s & children’s ministers and their families, but that I struggled to pray for myself. It’s all too easy to put our personal stuff on the back burner (I don’t mean my children and husband – I pray for them – I mean “me, myself, and I”.) They immediately jumped on the thread and told me they would lift me up. That’s the community that I want to stay engaged in. They mentioned their shortcomings and I was able to stop and pray for them and continue to pray for those women in their areas of struggle and doubt. I love the ladies just as much as those who are physically present in my life (and I’ve never actually met these women in this FB group). I’m thankful for them. Something that has stayed with me since then was how many of them told me they never pray for their Pastor.

Like . . . ever. That it just doesn’t cross their minds.

Today has me asking . . . how many people are praying for their leaders?

Are you?

Am I?

I may pray for my Pastor but I’ll tell you that I’ve seldom prayed for my Governor like I should, don’t pray for my State Reps near enough, and I haven’t been consistent with praying for my President. It’s a discipline I’ve been lacking.

But for today . . .

I ask you to just cover your Pastor and your small group leader, Bible school teachers, and community leaders in prayer. Pray fervent, specific, and bold prayers for them. Pray specifically for each one of them.

Don’t waste your prayer time.

We have the God given right, ability, responsibility and privilege to pray bold, powerful prayers for our Pastors . . . so pray!

Don’t pray for your Pastor because you agree with everything he has to say.

Don’t pray for your Pastor because it’s the “right” thing to do.

Don’t pray for your Pastor based on his godliness.

Don’t pray for your Pastor based on his degree.

Don’t pray for your Pastor based on his righteousness.

Don’t pray for your Pastor based on his denomination.

Don’t pray for your Pastor based on anything he’s doing . . . nothing more than the fact that it’s your responsibility. Yours.

Honor your God, our Lord, with your prayers and pray for these men leading us and our families and the next generation. If you haven’t been praying for your Pastor because you’re upset about something that he has done then . . . maybe it’s time for to take him off of that pedastool. Just keepin’ it real. Take him down a peg or two, even him up with you, and you’ll see that he’s just like you and me. He’s facing the same temptations, same problems, and he runs out of toilet paper just like we do.

Would you want to be a Pastor today? Especially without the prayer of your congregation surrounding you? How hard could that be? I see criticism all around me every day. In fact the better that I do, the more opposition I seem to face, and I can’t even count all the times I’ve faced scandalous gossip and criticism from other women just in the past few years. The more I grow, the more I gain, and the more burdens I bear. I can’t imagine what that’s like for a Pastor, to carry his own burdens plus to be criticized by church members who don’t like what they’re doing, to spend countless hours preparing for the weeks sermons, to do house and hospital visits, to have to hear about other peoples problems/sins/confessions/the downright gossip they hear and have to filter through . . . we expect them to bear it all and we’re not going to pray for them? We want effective pastor’s . . . then we need to pray targeted prayers for our pastor’s.

Don’t pray for your Pastors because you have to, pray for your Pastors because you get to!

“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” 1 Timothy 5:17

“We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.” 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13