Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Pray for Us - A Preacher's Plea

I love posting articles written by other preachers and pastors, because often I find them saying things I wish I could say to the flock, but out of false humility, fear they will think I am being selfish. But what George Whitefield, arguably one of the most powerful evangelists to ever trod this earth, writes here totally resounds with the heart of any faithful pastor and preacher.

If George Whitefield needed prayer as a minister of the gospel, how much more do the rest of us, who often feel insufficient for these things, need the constant and fervent prayers, supplications, and intercessions from their congregations, much the way Joshua needed the intercession of Moses, Aaron, and Hur when he was doing battle against the Amalekites? (Exodus 17)

The following is an excerpt by George Whitefield, taken from a devotional I purchased a couple years ago entitled, "Daily Readings", edited by Randall Pederson, to be read on January 2.

"Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you..." (2 Thessalonians 3:1)
You ought to pray for those whom the Holy Spirit has made overseers over you. This is what Saint Paul begs again and again of the churches to whom he writes...surely, if the great Saint Paul, that chosen vessel, that favorite of heaven, needed the most importunate prayers of his Christian converts, much more do the ordinary ministers of the gospel stand in need of the intercession of their respective flocks.
Much good is frequently withheld from many by reason of their neglecting to pray for their ministers, and which they would have received, had they prayed for them as they ought.
Not to mention, that people often complain of the want of diligent and faithful pastors. But how do they deserve good pastors, who will not earnestly pray to God for such? If we will not pray to the Lord of the harvest, can it be expected He will send forth laborers into His harvest? Besides, what ingratitude it is, not to pray for your ministers! For shall they watch and labor in the word and doctrine for you and your salvation, and shall you not pray for them in return?
Add to this, that praying for your ministers will be a manifest proof of your believing, that though Paul plant, and Apollos water, yet it is God alone who gives the increase. And you will also find it the best means you can use, to promote your own welfare; for God, in answer to your prayers, may impart a double portion of His Holy Spirit to them, whereby they will be qualified to deal out to you larger measures of knowledge in the spiritual things, and be enabled more skillfully to divide the word of truth.
Dear reader, please pray for your pastor regularly. Pray that he be near to Christ in sweet fellowship. Pray that he feed richly and often on the Word of God. Pray that he be a man of prayer, a man of holiness, a man of conviction, a man who fears God, a man filled with the Spirit, a man mighty in the Scriptures, a man faithful to the flock, a man who hates sin, a man who is humble, a man who loves his triune God, a man who loves the flock entrusted to him, a man who loves perishing sinners, a man who loves the glory of God, a man who loves his wife and family, a man who is filled with the Spirit, a man who has the Word of Christ abiding in him richly, a man who is used as a mighty vessel of God to draw Christ's wandering sheep to Himself.

I couldn't agree more heartily to Whitefield's plea for Christians to pray for their pastors.

Dear reader, would you please consider praying daily for your pastor(s)?

In Christ, and for His glory through the church, to the ends of the earth,
Pastor Ryan