Pray for Us...
Scripture Reading: Psalm 125; Ezekiel 11-12; Hebrews 13
Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.
This verse is a good reminder, a prompt of sorts, to pray for our church leaders.
Recently, a local pastor had a very public and disgracing moral failure. It must have been going on for some time, but it just happened that it came to light through a police sting which he was caught up in. It is hard to tell where he went off the rails, but somewhere along the way he did and the damage to his family and church is catastrophic.
No doubt he is personally responsible for his fall into sin. Nothing I am saying here contradicts that or removes his personal accountability. That is not the point.
But it is a good reminder that the devil loves to embarrass our spiritual leaders and undermine the credibility of the church and the gospel when he can. One of his favorite tactics is to lead a pastor or church leader into some public sin. Again, that is not an excuse. It is not saying, “The devil made me do it.” It is acknowledging that there are spiritual forces at work every day trying to destroy your spiritual leaders’ credibility.
How can we help?
We can pray for them.
One of the ways we can pray is that they would act honorably and have a clear conscience in everything they do.
That’s not the only way to pray for them, but its a good start.
