DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

For Future Leaders

Faithful Father,
Throughout history you have raised up strong leaders to guide and direct your people. While there are certainly natural gifts and abilities that you grant people in those roles, you ultimately are responsible for developing and equipping remarkable leaders. Continue to bless your church with reliable, trustworthy, and faithful leaders. Keep them also humble in their work.

Help congregations to consider how they identify, train, and equip individuals for leadership. Give them men and women willing to take others under their wings and invest the time to necessary to mentor and model for them. Provide outlets for potential future leaders to serve so that they come to realize that they may have certain gifts that are well-suited for leadership. When they do, increase in them a godly desire to spend more time with Jesus in his Word, so that they shadow him and imitate his life and ministry. Fill them with encouragement and support as they grow into leadership positions, and help them to embrace their shared role in continuing to develop leaders for the future. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

For the Gift of Fathers

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. I have countless reasons for which to give you thanks, and on this Father’s Day, I give you thanks for fathers and the irreplaceable role they play in families and homes. Of all the ways you could have chosen to bring up children, in your divine wisdom you established families, providing fathers to lead and love their children. Thank you especially for fathers who prioritize bringing their children to Jesus. 

While no father is perfect, they make many sacrifices to provide for their children and families. When they establish boundaries and rules for the good of their children, they also reflect your loving care in providing the same for us. When they consistently carry out discipline anytime the rules are broken, they are doing what is right and in the best interest of their children. Lead fathers to be eager to demonstrate grace and mercy as well, so that children are able to relate more to your grace and mercy. 

You have established fatherhood as one of the most noble callings of all. Lead our society to uphold it as such, and see that fathers are respected and honored among us. Richly bless their labors of love, encouraging them with supportive wives and rewarding them with obedient children who are a delight to raise.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

To Love Evangelically

Loving Savior,
This week I ask that you help me better see how to LOVE: Lead Others Voluntarily & Evangelically. When it comes to loving others, you aren’t merely concerned that we love others, but also why we love them. When we go through the motions and treat our service to others like a checklist that needs to be completed or a deed that needs to get done, we miss the point. I want to lead others evangelically – that is, motivated and empowered by the power of the gospel, the good news of God’s grace that we are saved through faith in you alone.

The gospel filters how I view others – as souls for whom you died, and as individuals loved and treasured by you. When I forget this, loving others takes a back seat to serving self. But when I remember this, how can I do anything but love those loved by you? Help me to remember that my loving service to others may be the first step that eventually results in their experiencing your love through the joy of the gospel. Finally, in order to love others evangelically, create in me the constant hunger to be personally filled up with the gospel regularly, so that it naturally flows through me to others.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

To Love Others Voluntarily

Loving Savior,
This week I ask that you help me better see how to LOVE: Lead Others Voluntarily & Evangelically. While you command us to love others, it isn’t the threat of punishment or the fear of consequence behind that command that drives us, but rather your fierce and freeing love for us that compels us. By your perfect obedience and the outpouring of grace and forgiveness that flows from the cross, we are no longer slaves under the law.

Therefore, in this new life of freedom, I ask that you create in me the genuine desire to voluntarily seek out opportunities to love others. Make my will like yours, seeking to lead others voluntarily in love. Remove from me all reluctance and resentment tied to your command to love others, and replace those sentiments with eagerness and excitement to display your love to others through my loving service. As I voluntarily render this loving service to others, use my example to initiate and inspire waves of love to continue spreading everywhere, so that believers everywhere help make your love become more and more prevalent all over the world.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

To Love Others (more than myself!)

Loving Savior,
This week I ask that you help me better see how to LOVE: Lead Others Voluntarily & Evangelically. When it comes to loving myself, I’m a natural – I was born into this world thinking that I’m the most important person in it! And, as much as I try convince myself that the reason it’s so difficult to love others has more to do with them, the real reason it’s hard is that I simply love myself too much. Forgive me, and turn my love away from self and onto others, just as you did perfectly.

Leading others in love is truly challenging. It’s easy for me to make it more about how I prefer to show or speak love into them than about what they really need. Help me let go of my insistence on loving others on my terms and free me to better love others on theirs. Whether it’s the biological family under my roof, my church family, or my neighborhood and community, opportunities abound to love others. Guide me to manage my time in a way that allows me to love others whenever doors open to do so each day. Grant me the joy of seeing the impact you can make when you use me to lead others with love. Through my Christ-like love for others, let it also be clear to others that I am your disciple.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

To Lead with Love

Loving Savior,
This week I ask that you help me better see how to LOVE: Lead Others Voluntarily & Evangelically. I thank you for the blessings I have personally received from having gifted leaders in my life. Their leadership has inspired me and spurred me on to grow and develop in different areas of life. You use gifted leaders to build up your church in many ways.

The thought of leading can be intimidating to many. However, when we remember that leadership is essentially influencing others, we can see a number of ways that leading in love can be very impactful. Leading with love means that I take the initiative to serve others and meet needs as they arise, rather than waiting for others to step up. When I love proactively in these ways, I positively influence others, and my love becomes a visible, tangible thing, rather than just a concept or a feeling. Curb any temptation in me to confuse influential leadership with manipulation that would seek to use other people or situations for self-serving purposes. Instead, let me lead with love as Jesus did, and use my example to shape how others view love and put it into practice, too. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

For the Blessing of Good Leadership

Lord and Leader of my life,
I thank you for the leaders you have placed in my life. Through their wisdom, experience, and guidance, you have provided me with direction and positive influence so often. I pray for those who haven’t or don’t currently have the blessing of strong role models and leaders to follow and imitate. Give them discernment so that they are able to learn even from poor leaders how not to conduct themselves, but also insert into their lives those kinds of leaders that have the ability to leave a significant impact on them in the right ways.

Good leadership is itself a great blessing, but godly leadership carries far more weight. I cannot thank you enough for the spiritual leaders, filled with your Spirit, who have pointed me again and again to your Word, your cross, and your tomb. No blessing compares to these gifts, and I am grateful for the sacrifices other leaders have made to keep me focused on them.

Bless my leadership as well. Through your Spirit, first help me lead myself along your paths, so that you might equip me with the spiritual tools to also lead others well. Give me the confidence to lead others, starting in my own home, leading my spouse and children, or equipping me to do so down the road should you bless me with them. If leadership is influencing others, help me to embrace the positive influence I can have on everyone around me all the time, and give me the courage to step into those roles boldly with your Spirit. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

For Those in Authority

Almighty God,
You reign supreme and oversee all things. You alone give all power and authority to those who govern and rule. Where such a responsibility and privilege is abused or neglected in our broken world, that isn’t a reflection of your holy desire to provide blessings through those in positions of authority. Forgive corrupt leaders and politicians for failing to serve as a conduit through which you intend to provide and protect citizens of their respective countries.

In your mercy, provide them with opportunities to right any wrongs and to learn from their mistakes and failures so that they might serve well. Supply leaders with sound support and sage advice from others, and grant them the humility to listen and to put wise counsel into practice. Give them discernment in identifying the needs of the people they serve, and the determination to meet those needs to the best of their ability. Finally, lead me to regularly keep my own local and national leaders in my prayers.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.