Editor’s Note: Why not email this post to everyone in your congregation to launch a prayer movement for your pastor.
What is the best thing that you can do for you pastor? Compliment him on his “outstanding, almost Charles Spurgeon-like sermon”? Give money to the church? Give your time and skills to the church? Not heckle him? Admire him for his manly beard? While those are all wonderful things, they are not the best thing that you can do for you pastor.
The absolute, most important, best thing that you can do for your pastor is to pray for him.
I was freshly reminded of that fact this morning when I read 2 Corinthians 1:11.
You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
This is Paul talking. The Apostle. The dude who wrote a significant portion of the New Testament. The guy who got blindsided by Jesus on Damascus Road.
The guy who had the whole “taken up to the third heaven and seeing things too glorious for words” experience. This isn’t a little ol’ Average Pastor with Minimal Gifting. We are talking about THE Apostle Paul who studied under THE Gamaliel. If anyone could feel sure of his ministry success, it was Paul. I would expect Paul to say, “I am confident of my success in the Lord, but your prayers would also be helpful.”
But that’s not what Paul says. He says, “You also MUST help us by prayer.”
There’s a hint of desperation in his voice. He is pleading for the prayers of the Corinthians. Why? Why does Paul feel such a deep need for the prayers of others?
