45 Ways to Pray for Your Pastor

Christians should pray for their pastors on a regular basis. But do we know how to pray for our ministers? I offer this list of 45 items as a guide of biblically-informed prayers. Obviously, this list is suggestive, not exhaustive.  

1. Pray that your pastor continually abides in Jesus (John 15:5).
2. Pray that your pastor engages often in the duty and delight of private prayer (Mark 1:35; Matthew 6:6).
3. Pray that your pastor loves God above all other loves (Matthew 22:37) and that he loves people (Matthew 22:39).
4. Pray that your pastor loves his wife as Christ loves the Church (Ephesians 5:25) and that he raises his children in the discipline and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).
5. Pray that your pastor manages his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive (1 Timothy 3:4).
6. Pray that your pastor commands his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice (Genesis 18:19).
7. Pray that your pastor and his household would serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).
8. Pray that your pastor is delivered from worldliness (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17) and especially the love of money (Matthew 6:24; 1 Timothy 6:10).
9. Pray that your pastor pursues sanctification and abstains from sexual immorality (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
10. Pray that your pastor exercises self-control over his tongue, his temper, and his appetite (1 Timothy 3:3; Galatians 5:22-23).
11. Pray that your pastor makes the best use of the time God has given him (Ephesians 5:16).
12. Pray that your pastor puts on the whole armor of God so that he might stand against the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-20).
13. Pray that your pastor burns (gospel heat) and shines (gospel light) the truth of God (John 5:35).
14. Pray that your pastor studies the Law of the Lord, does it, and teaches it to God’s people (Ezra 7:10).
15. Pray that your pastor studies God’s Word so that he might handle it rightly (2 Timothy 2:15).
16. Pray that your pastor keeps a close watch on himself (life) and the teaching (doctrine) so that he might save both himself and his hearers (1 Timothy 4:16).
17. Pray that your pastor teaches what accords with sound doctrine (Titus 2:1).
18. Pray that your pastor speaks only what God says (1 Kings 22:14).
19. Pray that your pastor prioritizes prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4).
20. Pray that your pastor preaches Christ and him crucified in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in the wisdom of men (1 Corinthians 2:2).
21. Pray that your pastor proclaims the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24).
22. Pray that your pastor proclaims the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27).
23. Pray that your pastor faithfully shepherds the sheep who have been purchased by the blood of Christ (Acts 20:28).
24. Pray that your pastor does not lead by domineering over the flock but by serving as a good example (1 Peter 5:3).
25. Pray that your pastor gives a good account of the souls entrusted to his care on Judgment Day (Hebrews 13:17).
26. Pray that your pastor speaks to please God, not men (1 Thessalonians 2:4; Galatians 1:10).
27. Pray that your pastor preaches the Word of God, in season and out of season, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with complete patience and teaching (2 Timothy 4:2).
28. Pray that your pastor effectively protects the sheep from wolves (false teachers) (Acts 20:29-30).
29. Pray that your pastor is able to refute those who contradict sound teaching (Titus 1:9).
30. Pray that your pastor does the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5).
31. Pray that your pastor is willing to endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they may obtain salvation (2 Timothy 2:10).
32. Pray that your pastor keeps his ministry faithful to God’s Word for the sake of the faith of God’s elect (Titus 1:1).
33. Pray that your pastor proclaims the truth that accords with godliness (both right doctrine and right living) (Titus 1:1).
34. Pray that your pastor shares both the gospel and his life with the congregation (1 Thessalonians 2:8).
35. Pray that your pastor is like a gentle mother nursing her children (1 Thessalonians 2:7) and like a faithful father exhorting his sons (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12).
36. Pray that your pastor practices hospitality (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8).
37. Pray that your pastor is strengthened by God’s grace (2 Timothy 2:1) to disciple faithful men who will disciple others (2 Timothy 2:2).
38. Pray that your pastor is prepared to share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:3).
39. Pray that your pastor avoids getting entangled in civilian pursuits (distractions) and keeps his focus on pleasing God (2 Timothy 2:4).
40. Pray that your pastor is a hardworking farmer who plants seeds and waters them (2 Timothy 2:6).
41. Pray that your pastor would gladly spend and be spent for souls (2 Corinthians 13:15).
42. Pray that your pastor’s planting and watering is blessed with God-given growth (1 Corinthians 3:7).   
43. Pray that your pastor ministers in light of eternity, seeking the things that are above (Colossians 3:1-2) and keeping in mind that all people will soon die and face judgment (Hebrews 9:27).
44. Pray that your pastor aims to present everyone mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28).
45. Pray that your pastor dies to himself so that he might bear fruit for God (John 12:24).

A Prayer for our Covenant Children

Our great covenant-keeping God who shows steadfast love to thousands of generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments (Ex. 20:6) and whose righteousness is upon our children’s children who love Him and remember to keep His commandments (Ps. 103:17-18), we come before You to pray for the children whom You have graciously given Your servants (Gen. 33:5).  May You find the godly offspring You seek from our marriages (Mal. 2:15)!  We plead Your promise to circumcise our hearts and the hearts of our offspring that we might love You with whole hearts (Deut. 30:6).  Grant our children to remember their Creator in the days of their youth (Eccl. 12:1), trust in You at their mothers’ breasts, be cast on You from birth (Ps. 22:9), be children of promise, not merely of flesh (Rom. 9:8), as we faithfully teach them the Scriptures from their infancy in order to make them wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 3:15).  According to Your covenant mercies, may Your Spirit and Your Word never depart from the mouth of our offspring or our children’s offspring (Is. 59:21).  Give us one heart and one way that we may fear You forever, for our good and for the good of our children after us (Jer. 32:39).  Grant us that we might train up our children in the way that they should go so that they might never depart from the right way (Prov. 22:6).  May we love our children enough to discipline them rather than hating them by sparing the rod (Prov. 13:24).  Strengthen our fathers to command their children and households after them to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice (Gen. 18:19).  Help our fathers to teach diligently Your commandments to their children and talk of them when they sit at home, walk by the way, and when they lie down and rise (Deut. 6:7).  May they not provoke their children to anger but raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).  Keep us from hiding Your truth from our children but grant us to tell to the coming generation of Your glorious deeds and the wonders You have done (Ps. 78:4) so that they should set their hope in You and not forget Your works but keep Your commandments (Ps. 78:7).  Turn the hearts of our fathers to our children and our children to our fathers (Mal. 4:6).  Grant our mothers to look well to the ways of their households and not eat the bread of idleness (Prov. 31:27); Grant that their children call them blessed and husbands praise them (Prov. 31:28).  Although they are federally holy (1 Cor. 7:14), may our covenant children not presume that though they walk in the stubbornness of their hearts that they will not perish (Deut. 29:19) and may they never say, “We have Abraham as our father” (Lu. 3:8) in the presumption of unbelief and sin.  Bestow upon them Your grace so that they might become the sons of Abraham through faith (Gal. 3:7), as You produce a spiritual seed from our physical seed (Gen. 17:7).  Make them members of the covenant of grace in inward reality as well as outward form (Rom. 2:28-29)!  We pray for these things believing that Your promise is to us and to our children forever (Acts 2:39).  Hear us as we pray in the name of Jesus Christ Your Son, Amen.