Scripture & Sample Prayer

Scripture: But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

Sample Prayer: Teach him to balance caution and initiative. Remind him all the time that little is much when You're in it.

Scripture: Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Sample Prayer: Make him a good leader in the spirit of Moses who knew you as a friend and taught the people both how to follow You and how to trust You.

Scripture: God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore.

Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise... 1 Th 5:15

Sample Prayer: Give my pastor a desire to know Your heart. Show him the way you'd have him go and keep reminding him of the difference between knowledge and wisdom; the world offers one while the other comes from you.

Scripture: But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.

Sample Prayer: We need a man who will get his energy and inspiration from association with You not from an association of his peers. Give him desire to be filled with Your Spirit and may Your Spirit be in control of his personal life and ministry.

Scripture: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

Sample Prayer: May we have fresh manna each day and not recycled sermons from the past. May he desire a fresh anointing daily and not just after he's tired of doing it his way.

Scripture: ...but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.

Sample Prayer: Keep him from going astray for the sake of being unique, but don't let his faith grow stale either. Make his actions be deliberate and always based on praying in advance of action.

Scripture: Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers--not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

Sample Prayer: May his example demonstrate how much you love us and may others see Your love in us and learn something about You in the process.

Scripture: The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," The worker deserves his wages.

Sample Prayer: Provide his needs so he won't have his attention on anything but serving his family and your people.

Scripture: For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sample Prayer: Give my pastor a fresh approach to ministry but don't let him experiment on us for the sake of creating a name for himself. And by all means, keep him from running in circles acting like he's following You.

Scripture: His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Sample Prayer: While education with all its degrees might be impressive, make him more concerned with filling his mind with Your word and less with learning stuff that's of limited usefulness to us.

Scripture: For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective

Sample Prayer: May he be grounded in faith to such a degree his life is constantly moving forward and upward. May the things by which you've equipped him be a source of blessing for him and those he serves.

Scripture: With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.

Sample Prayer: Make him a man of prayer that views every other ministry as secondary. Teach him to trust you and make him more effective the more time he spends time with You.

Scripture: Encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Sample Prayer: Strengthen his spirit and keep him from becoming arrogant and self-reliant. Make him an encourager and find the same thing coming back to him on a regular basis. Keep him from concentrating on what we're not doing, but rather encourage us to do good.

Scripture: For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self­discipline.

Sample Prayer: Give him a mighty spirit that reflects your power. Make him strong, yet utterly dependent on You. Keep him from looking for You in the wrong places and wasting Your time and his.

Scripture: All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation

Sample Prayer: Make him desirous to resolve conflicts in his own life so he can show us how to dot it. Don't allow him to consider any person disposable, but as worthy of the investment of his time.

Scripture: My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. Neh 8:3

Sample Prayer: ... May he listen to opposing views, but not be swayed by opinions that don't align with Scripture.

Scripture: With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

Sample Prayer: May my ministers have a healthy desire to preach the gospel at home and around the world, but keep them from overlooking the need to disciple those who profess faith.

Scripture: Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!

Sample Prayer: Keep him from being influenced by anyone but the Holy Spirit. May he always seek You approval and not that of men. May he listen to You and promptly do what You tell us to do in Your word.

Scripture: For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.

Sample Prayer: Keep him from considering some people groups as unworthy of Your love. Give him a heart to love others as You love him and may that influence men to love You.

Scripture: Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

Sample Prayer: Enpower him to speak your Word with boldness. Don't allow him to buckle under stress, but help him stand strong under fire.

Scripture: Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Sample Prayer: Help my pastor view others in the way You view him. May he treat others with respect in every curcumstance and never show them harshness or impatience.

Scripture: ... forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Sample Prayer: Keep us from allowing bitterness to rule our lives. Make us desirous of reconciliation and restoration. Give us a heart for resolving conflicts not burying them.

Scripture: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Sample Prayer: Make him strong in the power of Your might. Don't let him feel so capable he thinks he's strong, nor so weak he thinks you're incapable.

Scripture: The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.

Sample Prayer: Remind my minister that You are watching to see that Your purpose is fulfilled. Bless him as he trusts in You, but don't let him get so confident he won't rely on You.

Scripture: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Sample Prayer: May his life be one where spiritual fruit is displayed to the world n ever increasing measure. May his life be pleasing to You and one that others want to emulate.

Scripture: When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well's mouth and water the sheep.

Sample Prayer: Make our pastor one who shows us the way to be holy; confident, but not so that we see arrogant and self-reliant. Grant him a heart to give rather than take. May he be blessed for any personal sacrifice that helps strengthen the flock at his own expense.

Scripture: ... for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.

Sample Prayer: Help us make the right kind of enemies; those who despise and misunderstand You are never going to like us or our leaders if we're faithful to our calling. May the standard we and our leaders set, convince our enemies to rethink their opinion. But may we never adjust our conviction in order to give them a "better" opinion of us.

Scripture: Keep on loving each other as brothers.

Sample Prayer: Make us like the first church who loved You so much they were willing to give up everything they owned including their lives, in order to demonstrate God's love to a dying world.

Scripture: Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Sample Prayer: Sustain his every need as he casts all his care on You. May the faithfulness he displays inspire us.

Scripture: He tends his flock like a shepherd:

Sample Prayer: Give him the heart of a shepherd. May he care for those who need attention, but keep him from investing so much time he has nothing left for himself or his family.

Scripture: He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please...

Sample Prayer: You're working in our lives and have definite plans for us and those who lead us. Keep our ministers' hearts fixed on Your heart and make them men and women of God.

Scripture: They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain.

Sample Prayer: May he have understanding of Your word and be so controlled by the Holy Spirit, it's obvious to everyone that You're great. Give him a tender heart for the needs of others, but make him wise enough to know he can't do everything by himself even when he feels there is no one else to help.

Scripture: Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Sample Prayer: Make it plain to my pastor that good preaching can substitute for being a godly example.

Scripture: Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Sample Prayer: Keep us from starting things we never finish and finishing things we should've never started.

Scripture: I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

Sample Prayer: Give my pastor a joyful heart that's contagious and may anyone who tries to normalize him catch what he's got!

Scripture: ...that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Sample Prayer: Unite us as we through One Spirit aspire to be more like Jesus. Keep all of us from being divisive in word or action. Remind us of the joy You had on the cross - doing what you had to do in order to accomplish Your purpose.

Scripture: The entire tithe of the herd and flock-every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd's rod-will be holy to the LORD .

Sample Prayer: It's hard to render something as holy if we've misappropriated it in the past. May you fill our pastor's heart with a passion for holiness that refuses to buckle under the influence of the world; especially when the world mocks us and we care what they think.

Scripture: No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.

Sample Prayer: Remind us that we're nothing more than a broken vessel put back together by God's grace in order to make a difference in the world. It's natural for the world to focus on what's we've done wrong, but it's not good for us to do the same thing. Help us keep a positive attitude when the world wants to go negative.

Scripture: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.

Sample Prayer: Annoint him with Your power to preach the good news. Give him a heart for the oppressed, a passion to preach the good news to the lost and a desire to treat the flock with respect.

Scripture: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Sample Prayer: Make him thirsty for righteousness by salting his desire with gratitude. Fill him with joy and may it overflow to those around him..

Scripture: Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

Sample Prayer: Help him do the work You desire. May his action inspire us to join in and do it by his side.

Scripture: ... so the LORD's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.

Sample Prayer: Give my pastor a tenderness for ministry that seeks to use those who are gifted by the Holy Spirit. Don't give him tunnel-vision unless You're in the tunnel with him.

Scripture: let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance-

Sample Prayer: Don't let my pastor get so intelligent he can't learn anything from you. May he maintain a desire to learn at Your feet every day till you take him home.

Scripture: The proud and arrogant man-"Mocker" is his name; he behaves with overweening pride.

Sample Prayer: Don't allow my pastor to think more highly of himself that he ought. Keep him humble but don't allow him to take pride his humility, but rather serve others in love.

Scripture: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.

Sample Prayer: Grant him strong determination to stand firm on Your word. Give him feet to go, eyes to see and ears to hear what your Spirit tells him. Keep him from being overly influenced by the world and what it promises.

Scripture: But his delight is in the law of the LORD...

Sample Prayer: Give my pastor a growing desire to stay in Scripture, determined to base everything he says and does on what Your word says. Keep him from man-made programs and reveal to him what You want him to do. Keep him from acting like he's something when he's not.

Scripture: ... and on his law he meditates day and night.

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Jos 1:8

Sample Prayer: Build in my pastor a heart for memorization and meditation on Scripture. Create within him a strong resistive spirit to temptation, while giving him a eaually strong drive to please you in everything he does. Don't let him look in the wrong place for success.

Scripture: He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

Sample Prayer: Bless him physically, mentally, spiritually and emtionally in direct proportion to the way he blesses You and the church.

Scripture: For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Sample Prayer: Keep him safe from predators who seek to force him away from You. Grant him spiritual vision to see pending danger and spiritual sense to ask You for help before it pounces on us.

Scripture: You hem me in-behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.

Sample Prayer: Surround him with your grace and give him confidence to know where You want him to be. Keep him from using one flock as a stepping stone to another. Show him the value of blooming where you're planted.

Scripture: Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD will hear when I call to him.

Sample Prayer: Cleanse him by Your grace and use Him to bring glory to You. May he always see the importance of prayer and the ministry of the Word in doing the work You called him to do.

Scripture: And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.

Sample Prayer: Make our ministers a reflector of Your glory. Keep them from ungodly enterprises and give them a heart for serving others. Keep them from doing anything where the ministry of the Gospel suffers.

Scripture: ... all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.

Sample Prayer: Make him wise through understanding the way You work. Don't allow me or my pastor to be so earthly-minded he's no heavenly good!

Scripture: Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Sample Prayer: If my pastor's zeal is based on self-confidence, teach him dependence so his energy will begin to generate lasting spiritual fruit. Give him a balance of confidence and dependence in everything he does.

Scripture: Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.

Sample Prayer: Keep him from doing or saying anything that tends to divide the church and isolate those who are already hurting. May everything we do glorify You as we defer to one another in a spirit of unity for the sake of Your kingdom.

Scripture: To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

Sample Prayer: Give my ministers the energy to work hard, but not so much they run past their objectives and begin to work because they feel it's expected of them. Help them stay the course until each job is finished using delegation and personal participation.

Scripture: For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Sample Prayer: Convict him of doing things that don't bring glory toYou, especially when it focuses too much on the way things are done rather than why they're done. Keep secular humanism and worldly influence from degrading our testimony and effectiveness.

Scripture: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Sample Prayer: Remind us that we're victorious in Christ, having overcome the world. Don't let us get away with acting godly while we're living like the world.

Scripture: ...to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.

Sample Prayer: Give my pastor the kind considerate heart of a shepherd. Don't let him withhold what I need to know for fear of offending me. And remind me to keep my eyes on You while I'm looking at him so I don't expect too much of him.