Images-5 I loved this prayer by Martin Luther (quoted in A Minister's Prayer Book by John Doberstein).

"Lord God, thou has appointed me to be a bishop and pastor in thy church. Thou seest how unfit I am to undertake this great and difficult office, and were it not for thy help, I would long since have ruined it all. Therefore I cry unto thee; I will assuredly apply my mouth and my heart to thy service. I desire to teach the people, and I myself would learn and ever more diligently meditate on thy Word. Use thou me as thy instrument, only do not though forsake me, for if I am left alone I shall easily bring it all to destruction. Amen."

 Any church leader would understand …

6 thoughts on “A Pastor’s Prayer

  1. Mark, I think this is a great prayer too. Thanks for sharing. It does raise a question for me though, do we really need to pray that God will not forsake us ? Isn’t the bible full of his promises that he won’t do that, under any circumstances except unconfessed sin ? I know Jesus asked the same thing of God but wasn’t that because God did forsake him for 3 days to achieve a particular purpose ?
    Am interested in the general point of do we need to ask something of God that intrinsically part of his character and therefore something he would deviate from.
    thanks
    Andrew

  2. Sorry that should read
    “Am interested in the general point of do we need to ask something of God that is intrinsically part of his character and therefore something he would NOT deviate from”

  3. Good point, Andrew. Jesus did say he would be with us until he returns. Of course, we too need to ‘abide’ or keep connected to him (Jn 15) and not do things in our own strength or energy.

  4. Hi Mark – thanks for your blogs and input into our collective understanding of church leadership – it’s a blessing. I was just wondering whether you make a distinction in your framework between leadership and governance? No agenda here – just been reflecting a lot on this lately in my church context.
    Cheers
    Graham

Leave a Reply