This week we are exploring the second kind of prayer in our ACTS acronym:
Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication
POWER VERSE:
"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" (I John 4:20)
QUICK START PRAYER POINTS:
1. Pray that God will reveal any and all bitterness from the past against the church as a whole or individuals in the church. Pray that it will be confessed and cleansed from our pastors' hearts, as well as their family's.
2. Pray that anything that is currently going on in the church that could lead to a broken relationship between our leaders and the church would be dealt with in a healthy way. Pray that God would show all parties involved any part in the problem that may be due to their own sin, and that they would humble themselves to confess that sin.
3. Pray that our pastors will humbly lead our congregations in corporate confession, by example as well as direction. Pray that repentance would be the seed of revival in our churches as our leaders courageously speak the truth in love.
FULL PRAYER GUIDE:
What would you do if you were in a restaurant and the waiter began to publicly dress down your spouse? This person who is serving you in exchange for a wage feels they have the right to talk rudely about and to the one you love? Would you stand for it? Or would you stand up to it?
Just as we are married to our physical spouse, Christ is eternally joined with His Bride, the Church. Just as we would be hurt and angered at someone who spoke poorly about or to our spouse, Christ is not pleased when His Bride is slandered. If we don't love the church, in both our actions and our words, we hurt the heart of her Savior-Husband, Jesus Christ, the One we claim to love and serve.
This week as we focus in on confession, I would like us to pray that our pastors and their families will have a clean slate in their relationship with the Bride of Christ. It is impossible to freely love Christ while one harbors bitterness toward His Bride. Past hurts, current conflicts, and the pressure to ignore public confession of sin within the church in favor of a feel-good message are all issues that we need to pray about in regard to our pastors this week.
First, it is clear in scripture that until we release hurt and anger, or our "right" to hold a grudge for things done in the past, we will never move fully forward in our relationship with the Lord. Mark 11:26 says, "But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." Colossians 3:13 also commands, "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye."
As we pray for our pastors and their families this week, pray that they will know their own hearts in this area. Pray that the Lord will reveal any bitterness or envy toward the church. Spouses of those in ministry often feel jealous of the church as it eats so much into their family time. In studies compiled by the Schaeffer Institute, 80% of pastors' spouses believe pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families. (www.expastors.com/why-do-so-many-pastors-leave-the-ministry-the-facts-will-shock-you/)
The longer someone has been in ministry, the more times they have had to "forgive and forget" things done against them. Many pastors leave the ministry as the burden of pain becomes too great.
Bo Lane, founder of ExPastors.com, said this: "Although there were many aspects of serving in full-time ministry that I loved, there were more things that happened along the way that made a negative impact on both myself and my family. It took many years of forgiving and getting plugged in to a healthy church before I really began to heal from the hurt." (www.expastors.com/why-do-so-many-pastors-leave-the-ministry-the-facts-will-shock-you/)
Pray that our pastors will keep their hearts clean when old memories surface, and be truly set free if there are deep hurts that haunt them to this day. Along with the healing that only God can bring, pray that they will find others who can come alongside them either professionally or personally to help them work through any issues from the past that may be holding them back in their ministry.
Not only do our pastors deal with things that have happened in the past, but often they are mired in conflicts of all different sorts at any given moment. Bo Lane says this, "Many pastors are lonely.
70% do not have someone they consider a close friend and 40% report serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month."
While every profession has bad days, holding the title of pastor seems to come with the added feature of a huge bull's eye on the back. In the process of trying to bring out the best in people, pastors often become the target of the worst in others: irrational anger and sometimes, just plain bizarre accusations.
Knowing this, let's pray compassionately that our pastors will have the wisdom of Solomon as they handle the various kinds of conflict that a church deals with on a regular basis.Pray that they will know when and how to respond to whatever may come.
As we are focusing on confession, pray especially that they will be able to root out the sin that is always at the foundation of interpersonal strife. If they are in sin, pray that they will have the discernment and courage to face that inside of themselves and deal with it in a Biblical and healthy way. On the other hand, if the conflict is purely an attack of the enemy or an error on somebody else's part, pray that the sin will be revealed and the pastor will be able to lead that person to the cross to be made right with God. This is so important in ministry, whether dealing with adults, teens, or children.
Lastly, let's pray together that our pastors will have the courage to risk offending their congregations as they seek to lead in confession of sin at a corporate level. This is not popular today, and there may be no stronger evidence than the alteration of a favorite, traditional hymn that has been gaining popularity of late. Elizabeth Prata of the blog The-End-Time said this: "I heard "Amazing Grace" this week by a new artist. The lyric had been changed. This is what she sang-
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a SOUL like me...
"When I was lost, I liked the hymn. I thought it was pretty, and had a good message and stirred me somehow. Except one part I hated. When it got to the lyric that said, "saved a WRETCH like me." When it got to that part, I closed my mouth and refused to sing the line. 'I'm not a wretch' I'd think to myself. 'I'm a good person! How ridiculous to have such low self-esteem!'...Now that we are in such an apostate world, no one likes to believe they are a wretch. But unless we understand how very great of a wretch we are, we will not understand how very great a Savior we have." [Emphasis added]
We must pray that our pastors have the courage to name sin as sin, or the power of the Gospel is lost. Along with that, it should lead us to pray that we and our fellow church members are open to the message of confession and repentance, else our pastors become discouraged in trying to lead us to it. The pressure, both spiritual and social, to ignore sin and pretend that things are great is no small thing in the life of a leader.
As long as the enemy can keep us making excuses and rationalizations for our sin, the longer he can keep us in bondage to it. But Galatians 5:1 says, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." When we don't confess sin, personally or corporately, we allow ourselves, like the Israelites of old, to be led away into bondage. This is not God's plan for us, and the solution is so simple, yet so easy for our pastors to ignore because it is uncomfortable to do.
The beauty of confession though, is not in the confessing. We do not earn forgiveness by confessing our sin, although the Bible clearly says that we are forgiven when we do. (I John 1:9) The beauty of confession is just as Prata stated above: it is not until we understand the full extent or our crimes, and allow them to truly break our hearts before the Lord, that we can comprehend just a little more the immense, immeasurable love and mercy of our God.
When we bring Him our confessions, and receive His unconditional love, our hearts are filled with love in return. When our hearts are filled to overflowing with that kind of peace and joy, knowing we are accepted through no fault of our own, then we can truly live the abundant life that will rock the world of people in our sphere of influence.
This is our prayer for our pastors this week. Join me in lifting them up, as we ask God to gently break their hearts for any unconfessed sin in their lives. We are not asking this out of malice, spite, or self-righteousness. We ask Him to do this because our heart's desire is to see our pastors living out their full potential, free from the yoke of bondage to sins from the past, conflicts in the here and now, and the pressure to leave things unconfessed in the church.
May the Lord set them free this week, that they "May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Eph. 3:17-19) Out of His love for us flows our love for Him. In our love for Him, we also must love His Bride, the Church. As we love His Bride, leaving nothing to scar or sever that relationship, we will see His Name glorified.
