Do you need some help on how to pray for your pastor? Pastors have such a variety of responsibilities and struggles. Do you want to pray effectively for them in a way that they benefit and are blessed by your prayers? Yet, do you lack a knowledge of exactly how to pray for them? Do you fully present to God all the things they need to be and do to fulfill all God has called them to be and do?
The book of Titus in the Bible is a great guide to assist you in praying for the leader of the congregation where you attend. Titus was a young pastor. He was physically younger than most in his congregation. The Apostle Paul was his mentor and encourager. As an encourager, Paul wrote to Titus and gave him some instruction on how to lead the congregation in Crete. Paul gave Titus a “list” of things to do.
If you lack a knowledge of how to pray for your pastor, consider interceding for your pastor with the list of things God instructed a young pastor to do through his mentor Paul. Though pastors today may appear to be different than they did in Bible times, the basic foundation of the duty of a pastor remains the same. To say it definitively, God’s idea for pastors to lead the people remains the same.
Taken from the book of Titus, the following are things you can pray for your pastors. These all line up with the mission of God for pastors. Consider reading the Book of Titus and supplementing with these prayer prompts.
THEY = YOUR PASTOR
They will promote
- Confidence in God’s Message (Word)
- Experience of God’s Character
- Expectation of God’s Promises
- Proclamation of God’s Commands
They would possess
- Faith – God-confidence
- Grace – God-nature
- Peace – God-wholeness
They would lead, establish, organize, provide
- Whatever is needed
- Elders who are sanctified, stable, devoted to Righteousness, learned, lovers of God, temperate, hospitable, patient, and haters of evil.
They would prioritize
- Learning/Teaching God’s Word for the purpose of making clear division between right/wrong, good/evil, acceptable/unacceptable.
- Actively engage in accurately giving God’s instruction, speaking with freedom from deception, teaching a quality message to those who hear without expecting undue promotion.
They would appear
- Error free
- Healthy in thinking/knowledge
- Blameless in proclaiming God’s Word
- Pure in motives and ministry (unmixed w/ other doctrines, thoughts, worldly philosophies.)
They would experience
- God in a direct and personal way by God’s direct work on, in, and through them.
- Fruits of righteousness from their efforts.
They would teach
- All things which promote the whole message of God
- Systems of learning to teach according to
- Men – temperance, dignity (valuableness), sensible (able to change), healthy in faith/love/perseverance
- Women (young and old) – respectful behavior, speech that builds up others, freedom from addictions, God’s character of love for family (spouse/children), responsiveness to God’s Word and inclined to change when instructed, diligent in their home, intentional with their time, honor God’s Word by being kind/submissive/reverent/respectful.
- Young men – proper balance, able to be taught, responsive to change as God directs by His Word.
To be examples
- Always displaying God’s nature/deeds
- Fully teaching God’s message
- Seriousness, having value/weight, being worth something
- Pure – unmixed with the world
- Whole counsel of God, healthy teaching
- Reputations worthy of respect
To be instructive
- In submission to authority
- In behavior that is good/pleasing
- In getting along with others
- In freely sharing
- In displaying confidence in God
- In displaying respect for God’s teaching
To be received as good, valuable, worthy to be listened – receptive
- To God’s grace for the purpose of their own instruction and transmission to others.
- To help rescue all people from the position, penalty, & power of sin
- To tell right, encourage right, and enforce right — with authority
- For the purpose of helping individuals refuse to be without God, refuse worldly cravings, live as recipients of God’s work in them, live in righteousness, live displaying the nature of God, look expectantly for the high honor and excellence of Christ’s appearing
- Knowing God loves them
- Knowing God gave Himself for them
- Knowing they are bought from being slaves
- Knowing they are people who have extreme interest in doing God’s work (now and always) – wanting God to be Master.
- For the purpose of helping individuals refuse to be without God, refuse worldly cravings, live as recipients of God’s work in them, live in righteousness, live displaying the nature of God, look expectantly for the high honor and excellence of Christ’s appearing
To be always reminding
- Submission to authority
- Obedient to instruction
- Ready to do God’s work (displaying God’s nature)
- Never slander (say untrue/hurtful things)
- Keep agreement to live at peace
- Be gentle (unharsh)
- Consider the needs of others
To be aware
- Before a relationship with God they were all
- w/out God (dead)
- disobedient (unable to obey)
- addicted to cravings/pleasure
- hurting others
- desire to get ahead
- hateful to others
- God appears (showed up) with
- His benevolence/mercy
- His love (personal affection for)
- Doing this
- Rescued from death, disobedience, addictions, hurting, envy, violence
- With a motive not from their good deeds – but motivated because of His compassion over them because God made alive by taking away the record of error and made new by giving the Spirit of God.
- Giving eternal life and peace – taking away enemy status and calling them a friend of God.
To be abundant
- In the doctrine of God by the teaching of God – what God wants to show to displayed in Christ Jesus – the realization of God’s instruction displayed in Christ Jesus.
- God’s clear availability of
- The message of salvation
- The offer of redemption
- The promise of eternal life
- The freedom of peace
- In the position of being heir as God’s favor – desire to have all men to come into His likeness and expectation of life forever.
To be purposeful in speech
- Make people who believe God to actively do good works.
- Teach of the profit for men to do good works
- Stay away from arguments that are not of God and/or have no value
- Reject a man of distorted division
To be evidence of right doctrine
- Doing of good works natured like God – sacrificial – benevolent
- Meeting people in the loneliness of where they are in the distress of their life.
To be filled thoroughly with the grace of God.
Whether your pastor is seasoned, new to the pastorate, or somewhere in between, you can use these instructions from Titus to intercede to God on their behalf that they would grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Compiled by Anne W. Gurley
