Ablaze for God - Day 24 Devotional

“Your Prayer Life as a Leader”
Submitted by Dana Jalovick
Key text: Acts 6:4

All spiritual leadership has at its core the simplicity of dialogue with God. It is our relationship with Him that will be the example to those we lead, and it will be the source of our guidance and insight into the ministry of the word to them.

1 Peter 2:9 tells us that we “are a chosen people, a royal priesthood . . . a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” When we become saved we are all given the priestly work of prayer. It is because of Christ’s atonement, what He did for us on the cross, that we have been given this privilege of prayer on the behalf of others. Because of Christ’s atonement we are complete in him; and so now we can do what Jesus did . . . pray (see John 14 – 17). It is our ministry to intercede for others.

When the apostle Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), what he is telling us it that our prayer is not just a spiritual exercise, but is as much a reality of our life as the blood that flows and the heart that beats within. We may not always be conscious of it, but it is always going on. This is how we stay in touch with reality. If we are only praying when things go wrong we aren’t really in touch with God. But if we are truly a child of God, we will be like a child - continually talking and listening to him. We can start by asking God to help us see people and situations the way He does, to help us form the mind of Christ within. When we seek the mind of Christ we will begin to see people and circumstances from His point of view, and so our prayers will flow out from a whole new perspective.