BARBARANNE KELLY | CONTRIBUTOR

“[Pray] also for me”
—Ephesians 6:19

How do you pray for your pastor?

Some of the most beautiful, personal, and instructive prayers in the New Testament are written by the Apostle Paul, expressing his own prayers for his beloved readers. But when he sprinkles prayer requests for himself into his letters, these too are instructive. Paul’s prayers are notable not only for what he requests, but also for what he doesn’t. When writing from prison, Paul doesn’t ask that his prayer warriors seek God for his release, personal comfort, or vengeance against his captors. These would have been merely temporary goals after all, and Paul’s eyes were fixed on a farther horizon. In one instance he does ask for a warm cloak and his books (2 Tim. 4:13), but as he closes his letter to the Ephesian churches, he asks for words and boldness to preach the gospel. Paul’s priorities for prayer are centered upon his calling as a minister of the Word.

Taking our cue from Paul, what does your pastor need most?

Words

If anyone had words at his disposal, it was the Apostle Paul. Prior to his arrest and imprisonment, his ministry focused on the verbal proclamation—oftentimes spontaneously—of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He spoke before Jews and Gentiles, servants, philosophers, and kings. The words he wrote in letters to churches and his friends and proteges fill the New Testament, revealing the mystery of the gospel and the transcendent God of heaven. And yet he knew he needed Holy Spirit-inspired words with which to deliver his life-giving and Christ-centered message. He didn’t want his own words; he wanted God’s words. The reason Paul had words to communicate the message of salvation at all was because he had the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and a growing army of prayer warriors pleading for the gospel to flourish under his ministry (Phil. 1:19). Pray that your pastor would have Spirit-empowered words to preach the gospel in season and out.

Boldness                                                            

Paul was no wallflower. He preached the message of Christ to Jews who were hostile to his message and Gentiles who considered it to be the height of foolishness. Even though he was accused of a weak bodily presence and speech (2 Cor. 10:10), he endured imprisonments, beatings, lashings, stonings, shipwrecks, and multiple dangers from multiple sources (2 Cor. 11:23–29). The boldness he possessed when he persecuted Christians prior to his conversion came from his zeal for the Law and the authority of the chief priests in Jerusalem, but his holy boldness to preach the gospel came from his zeal for Christ, who has been seated far above all rule and authority and power and dominion (Eph. 1:20–21). Pray that your pastor would not be concerned to preach what you want to hear but what you need to hear. Pray that he would remain dependent on the Lord for the holy boldness he needs and not fall back into reliance on his own native character.

Love, Faith, and Purity

Neither words nor boldness will matter unless they are accompanied by fervent love for God, profound faith in Christ, and a purity of life that comes only from the Holy Spirit. As true when Paul wrote it as it is now—if not more so—every pastor needs to withstand the scrutiny of a world that would delight to find reasons to disqualify the gospel. Paul wasn’t immune to the pressures faced by gospel ministers. Like your pastor and mine, “He’s a man, he’s a minister, he’s a child of God, he’s a sinner, he’s weak, he has moments of temptation, he has a thorn in the flesh that the Lord has not removed, [and] he has enemies who hate him.”[1] Just like Paul, in order for your pastor to have a life that’s an example to be followed as he follows Christ (1 Cor. 11:1), he needs the qualities and disciplines that Paul commended to Timothy:

“. . . set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. . . . Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” —1 Timothy 4:12–16

Immersion in the love of God looks like time spent with him in his Word and the intimate fellowship and communion of prayer. This prayer immersion is displayed in the life of our Lord as seen in the gospels where he repeatedly retreats from the hustle and bustle of ministry for time with his Father in prayer—seeking “the rock and safe refuge of his soul, time before the face of the Lord, time in solitude to have fellowship with the One who is greater than all.”[2]

Pray that your pastor would immerse himself in the Word and seek the constant fellowship of God in prayer; that he would rely upon, submit himself fully to, and be simply satisfied in Christ, trusting that he is true and good and present; and that he would cast himself upon the faithful ministry of the Holy Spirit. Pray that his immersion in the love of God would so deepen his faith in the gospel message that he would proclaim it without apology or qualification. Pray that his love for Christ would lead to his persistent vigilance for a gospel-adorning purity of life. And pray that by the help of the Holy Spirit and before a watching world, he would keep a close watch on himself and what he teaches, thereby saving both himself and his hearers.[3]

[1] Rev. Nick Bullock, Spiritual Prayer; the Stronghold of Embattled Souls, sermon on Ephesians 6:18–20, (Christ Presbyterian Church, New Braunfels, TX, 9/8/2024, Spiritual Prayer: The Stronghold of Embattled Souls | SermonAudio)

[2] Ibid.

[3] Much of this paragraph was distilled from the sermon cited above by my pastor, Nick Bullock, for whom I pray, along with our Reverend Zeek Dean, with gratitude.

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