Prayer for Pastors, week of January 22, 2018

Holy Father, sovereign in and over all things everywhere, I worship and truly adore you this morning as I come before you on behalf of my pastor and your chosen and empowered servant-leaders in the church all over New England.  May they be lifted in their spirits and illumined in their minds by your divine, holy and loving presence with them this morning.

Refresh them and strengthen them in every way for the ministry of the gospel this morning and through the day.  May they eagerly yearn to get “out there” to serve you and build up your people, and with compassion for the lost, preach Christ so people will come to you.

Cause them to see clearly their role as servant-leaders under Christ and may they not set themselves forward in any way that will mislead people.  May they walk in humility and yet boldness and love so that they truly represent Christ above all, and themselves as his servants for the sake of their people.  Keep them from sin in all its subtle and alluring forms.  May each of them shine as a light in the darkness of this world.  Make them bold to proclaim all the truth in a day when the world is seeking to silence them.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Prayer for Pastors, week of January 15, 2018

Our Father, oh the joy, comfort and encouragement of calling you our Father.  You are worthy of all praise and I praise you.  As I rejoice in you and know your loving presence so may every believing pastor, including my pastor, have the same experience with you as they start this day in which they will be fulfilling your call on them to pastor your people.  May they do so with joy and the confident expectation that you will empower them through your Spirit and lead them in all their ways so they know they are doing and saying what you want of them.

May there be a spiritual harmony in all they teach over all New England.  Father, confound the minds and words of those who serve themselves and proclaim a false gospel.  Empty their churches but fill the churches of your faithful pastors.  Draw people to faith in our Lord Jesus today and strengthen the faith of those who follow your Son our Lord and Savior.

Father, may not one of these faithful pastors give up on the faith and chase after illusions put before them by demonic beings.  May they be faithful to the very last breath.  May they teach believers with their whole life – by word, demeanor, love, faith, integrity.  May they faithfully man their posts reading Scripture, giving counsel and teaching.  Help them, our Father, to keep a firm grip on both their character and their teaching.  May they finish the day as they started it, filled with joy in you.  In Jesus name, Amen

Prayer for Pastors, week of January 8, 2018

Father, you are the joy, joy, joy filling my soul, you’re the joy, joy, joy making me whole.  I am rejoicing in your presence.  You fill my heart, soul and life like nothing else ever can.  I rejoice in you this morning, and I earnestly desire the same experience of your presence for every believing pastor in New England and beyond this morning as they rise to face the day with its challenges and opportunities.  Evil presses hard on them because they are your servants with both your call on them and their determination to fulfill that call.

Fill them with the joy of your presence and excitement over the opportunity to pastor your people and to proclaim Christ today.  Protect them from the attacks of the evil one and any in their congregations who are under his control and do his vile work.  Give them boldness and steadfastness to speak for you and live out their faith in you before all people today.

Give them success in their work for you and bring them to their beds in peace rejoicing in you and praying for their people.  I bless your holy, holy, holy name.  In Jesus name I pray, so be it!

Prayer for Pastors, week of January 1, 2018

Father it’s a privilege and joy to bring to my pastor and those pastors in my community, as they are your anointed shepherds caring for your people.  Guide me in my prayer and empower me by your Holy Spirit to pray with insight and love.

Strengthen our pastors with all needed strength to do, with passion, what you’ve set before them today.  May they pursue the things of Christ with eagerness with their eyes fixed on Christ alert to what’s going on around them.  May they thread their way through the challenges and obstacles before them, determined to win the day for Jesus.  May they not be fixed just on the present but have their eyes on what is yet to come for all who truly pursue Christ, and with passion set this before their people through their preaching and teaching as the destiny of all believers.

May they keep refreshing themselves with anticipation at the joy to come and so repeatedly stimulate your people with this glorious truth.  May they practice and demonstrate all the virtues of the Christ- life, and constantly put off the ungodly ways of the world.  May they be true and public examples to your flock and be followed by all who seek to know and serve you.  In Jesus name, Amen

Prayer for Pastors, week of December 25, 2017

Father in heaven, oh the joy of calling you, “Father, my Father,” I come to you on behalf of the believing pastors in New England, and elsewhere.  They are entering another day of ministry and service which you have called them to.  Fill them with the joy of walking with you and proclaiming the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

May they think, speak and act like shepherds of souls with love for the people.  May they be free from any anger towards their congregations.  May they see them as you see them and may they be content where they are and not dream of a different and better church to serve.

May they endure hardship, low income and opposition patiently as they look to you.  May they be sober-minded and watchful because of their adversary, protect them from the evil one, give them joy in preaching the word and satisfaction with what they’ve done when the day is over.  Take pleasure in them and bless them today.  In Jesus name, Amen.

Prayer for Pastors, week of December 18, 2017

Our Father in heaven, above and over all, Father of mercy and grace, justice and righteousness, guide me as I seek to pray for my pastor and the pastors in our community this morning in a way worthy of bringing them to you.  May Jesus be central, not just important, preeminent, not just one of many points of focus as our pastors serve you and your people as shepherds of souls today.  May Jesus be central to all they proclaim and do.  May our pastors know beyond doubt that they are on special assignment by Christ and not just filling a position in a congregation.  May they be gripped afresh today with the significance of what they have been called to and so give themselves to it with all they are and have.

Give them a clear grasp on the reality of your coming kingdom in the midst of the smoke and heat and din of the clashing and alluring kingdoms of this world.  Give them a deep and abiding sense of the eternal, and that you are at the heart, center, core of it all.  Fill them afresh with the reality that you are the ultimate Victor and that your kingdom is coming and will never pass away.

I thank you for these faithful, stalwart, enduring and committed friends of yours who are seeking to lift Jesus up before their congregations.  May they see beyond the petty issues of their lives to the fact that they are your children, and may they seek to draw people closer to you and help them see you more as you are and closer to them than anyone else.

May they see your people with the eyes of your love and may they pray for them with all their hearts.  And finally, may they go to their beds at the end of the day filled with the humble conviction that they have done their best to be faithful to you and the call you put on them to be a pastor and to feed your sheep.  Hallelujah, Amen.

Prayer for Pastors, week of October 2, 2017

Father in heaven, to worship you is the joy of my heart.  May I worship you more and more fully with each passing day.  May I truly exalt you every day of my life and please you in all I do, say, think and desire.

May all the believing pastors of New England find joy, deep overflowing joy, in worshiping you as they enter into this day and all that is before them.  May their joy in you be clearly evident to their congregations, and may the sounds of joy and praise to you ascend from these churches like the morning mist rises from the rooftop on a frosty day.

Once again may they speak with the clarity, conviction, power and boldness of the Holy Spirit, sounding a clear note of hope in Christ and demonstrating love by their words and actions.  Remove from them all weariness and discouragement and worry, and may they go through the morning and the day in your peace and presence just living in the moment and letting tomorrow wait for tomorrow.

Reward their service for you today with fruit that lasts, and keep them in the ministry until you call them home.  This I pray in Jesus name, Amen!

Prayer for Pastors, week of September 25, 2017

Father in heaven whom I love and adore and seek to follow through Christ.  Hear my prayer for your precious witnesses whom you’ve called to be your pastoral servant leaders.  May their words be clear and sharp and filled with your light and love as they speak for you today.  May they speak of you as Paul did in Ephesians 1:1-18.  May they lift Jesus Christ up today in all his fullness, beauty, power and love.  May they speak with conviction and passion that he is coming again, and may there be a strong note of longing in their voice.

May they grasp and so proclaim the immensity of this glorious life in Christ which you have for all his followers.  May they hold Christ up high, high, higher than anything or anyone else.  So be it!

Prayer for Pastors, week of September 18, 2017

Our Father in heaven, Father from whom flows all mercy, grace, love, kindness, patience and wisdom, whom I love with all my heart.  I now bring before you those whom you have called and chosen and led into the ministry of the Good News of your Son our Lord and Savior, Jesus.  I lift the believing pastors all over New England to you as they face another Sunday of ministry to and in the body of Christ.

Guide them to embrace everything within the Scriptures regarding our Lord Jesus, and to live it, speak and teach it with conviction, passion and joy.  Keep them from compromising or playing down or obscuring the gospel.  Make them bold, compassionate and patient with people, but may they not give way to error or become harsh and pharisaical or judgmental.  May they truly shine like light in the darkness of these trying days.

May they talk much about believing in Jesus and all the ways the Scripture speaks of him, and in these days of moral perversion and compromise may they be bold, faithful and clear, warning of judgment to come and of eternal life through Christ and faith in him.  This I pray in Jesus name, Amen

Prayer for Pastors, week of September 11, 2017

Father, it’s a beautiful morning with the sun about to break over the horizon and spray its light on the treetops, then bathe the whole landscape with this refreshing, spirit-lifting light.  I love it, and I love you.  I pray for the pastors in this whole region as they start their day, that they would each experience the morning in the same spirit lifting way.  They have a great opportunity before them of teaching your people and proclaiming your word and ways to their congregations.  May they do so with a joyful spirit being refreshed by your Spirit in their inner being like the dawning sun refreshes our spirit.

Father, keep them from being disillusioned or fed up with their people.  Give them fresh eyes to see their congregation in the same way you see them.  Then they will pastor them in love with truth that refreshes, illumines and corrects.  They will dare to risk everything for the gospel, and they’ll settle for nothing less than what you have led them to seek for and build in their congregations.

May your Spirit flow like a roaring river in and through them onto your people, carrying everyone along in the joy of all you prepared for them in Christ.  May he sweep away all the debris in their lives and leave them clean and more ready to do your will than ever before.  Above all, don’t let them just pastor on another same old Sunday in the same old way, and don’t let the people just come to church in the same old way failing to look with eager anticipation for what you have for them and to encounter you among them.

Glorify yourself today in and through your church.  So be it.