Pray for Pastors

Pray for Pastors

Do you consider your suffering a disappointment or an honor?

Does your suffering make you passive or aggressive?

Do you learn to accept life as it is?

or

Do you stand on God’s Word and hold your ground?

If these are hard questions for you,

think of the pressure they put on your Pastor.

Today, remember Pastors in prayer!

 

  The other day Sandy and I were thinking

of all the pastors we have come to know

over the 30 some years I have Pastored.

We became astounded as we listed those who

had gone through great pain and suffering.

If you believe that Jesus is God

and the Devil is Satan,

then you have to believe that the ministry
is a hazardous occupation.

Pastors generally don’t say much

about their own battles

because it many times

is looked at as weakness.

The Apostle Paul’s sufferings

are almost unbelievable.

But he looked at them as an honor.

Galatians 6:17 NIV

Finally, let no one cause me trouble,

for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

Your pastor goes through much more

then you realize.

To stand before you and tell you

God has a plan for your life is not easy.

Those of us in the ministry

have come to realize

we don’t win all the battles.

We have prayed and fasted,

anointed with oil,

gone without sleep

as we prayed

for a sick member of the church

only to see them die.

(Disappointment is a big part of Pastoring.)

But the Pastor leaves the funeral home

to visit you at the hospital

to give you hope.

He stands in the pulpit

and reads with confidence

Psalms 103 NIV

2 Praise the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits — 

3 who forgives all your sins

and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit

and crowns you with love and compassion,

5 who satisfies your desires with good things

so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

What keeps a Pastor going

after losing so many battles?

It’s the belief that the war will be won

and Jesus Christ will have the victory!

Scripture Reading

2 Corinthians 11:21-31 THE MESSAGE

Since you admire the egomaniacs of the pulpit so much

(remember, this is your old friend, the fool, talking),

let me try my hand at it.

22 Do they brag of being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham?

I'm their match.

23 Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better.

(I can't believe I'm saying these things.

It's crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I'm going to finish.)

I've worked much harder,

been jailed more often,

beaten up more times than I can count,

and at death's door time after time.

24 I've been flogged five times with the Jews' thirty-nine lashes,

25 beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once.

I've been shipwrecked three times,

and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day.

26 In hard traveling year in and year out,

I've had to ford rivers,

fend off robbers,

struggle with friends,

struggle with foes.

I've been at risk in the city,

at risk in the country,

endangered by desert sun and sea storm,

and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers.

27 I've known drudgery and hard labor,

many a long and lonely night without sleep,

many a missed meal,

blasted by the cold,

naked to the weather.

28 And that's not the half of it,

when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches.

29 When someone gets to the end of his rope,

I feel the desperation in my bones.

When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.

30 If I have to "brag" about myself,

I'll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus.