DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

For Pastors

Lord of the Church,
Thank you for the gift of pastors. Through their service, you lead and feed your sheep. Keep them fervent and faithful to the task. Send your Spirit to guide their handling of your Word so that it continues to be proclaimed and taught without error. Guard pastors from apathetic attitudes and laziness. Let them carry out their calling with respect and the highest regard for your ministry. Bless their efforts and use them to equip your people and build up your church.

Along with the rich blessings that accompany ministry, there are also many challenges. When pastors are frustrated or discouraged, restore them with your gracious promises. When they have to oversee difficult situations or individuals, provide them with the counsel and support they need. When they struggle with feelings of inadequacy or insecurity, remind them that you are their rock and the rock on which your church is built. When they feel lonely or isolated, move them to look to brothers in ministry for encouragement and hope. Guard pastors from enticement or temptation that would not only threaten them spiritually, but potentially put their ministry at risk. Hold your heavenly prize always before them, and fill them with peace and purpose through the assurance that you are ever-present in their lives and ministries.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

To Enrich My Prayer Life

Dear Jesus,
Teach me to pray. When I listen to your voice, I am comforted and reassured by your promises and I hear the encouragement and direction I need to faithfully walk in your footsteps. And, when I listen to your voice, it compels me to speak back to you in prayer. But so often I feel as if my prayers are shallow shells when compared to the bold, robust prayers of the faithful believers recorded in your Word. My prayers tend to focus on the physical rather than the spiritual. They are more about me than about others. I frequently struggle even trying to think of what to pray for at all. And, don’t get me started on all of the broken prayer promises I’ve made to others who’ve requested my prayers!

Enrich my prayer life and let your will and your words permeate my prayers, so that my requests and intercessions mirror what you want for others and for me. Help me to balance the physical and the spiritual in my prayers, so that my heart and mind are not preoccupied with what is temporal and worldly. Direct me to pray more often, so that it becomes more and more natural for me and so that my prayer life is enhanced in every good and pleasing way. Bless me with your Word, so that your words may shape more of my own in prayer. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.