A Pastor’s Prayer by Gerald Brooks
A Pastor’s Prayer
Gerald Brooks
Gerald Brooks is the senior pastor of Grace Outreach Center in Plano, Texas. In addition to pastoring a thriving and vibrant church, Pastor Brooks continues to influence thousands of pastors with teaching on leadership. Check out his web-site.
In Christian leadership there are not any shortcuts. In this day of accelerating pace, instant messaging and faster computers, leadership has not changed. It requires the simple but powerful process of prayer.
Prayer is where leadership begins.
- In pastoral ministry your stage time can never exceed your prayer time.
- A leader leads in prayer long before he leads in public.
- A leader’s commitment to pray precedes the people’s commitment to follow.
- If you won’t pray for them, then you lose the right to lead them.
Leaders pray differently than other individuals do.
- They pray more for others than themselves.
Ephesians 1:15-16 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.
- They pray more for inside issues than outside.
Ephesians 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
- They pray more for tomorrow than today.
Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
- They pray more for the purpose of God than just for the power of God.
Ephesians 1:19-23 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
There has never been a leader like Jesus. He is our example and sets the model for prayer in John 17:1-26.
- He prayed for their faith.
John 17:11-12 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
- He prayed for their fulfillment.
John 17:13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
- He prayed for their future.
John 17:14-15 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
- He prayed for their faithfulness.
John 17:16-17 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
- He prayed for their fruitfulness.
John 17:18-20 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. 20“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.”
- He prayed for their fellowship.
John 17:21-23 That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
- He prayed for their favor.
John 17:25-26 O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.