In Acts 6, the apostles (who, among other things serve as models for pastoral ministry) say they cannot serve the widows – not because the task isn’t important, but because it is not their calling. Instead they said, “we must devote ourselves to the ministry of the word and prayer.” Prayer was integral to their ministry, and should be to ours as well.
C. H. Spurgeon says, “If you are a genuine minister of God you will stand as a priest before the 
Lord, spiritually wearing the ephod and the breastplate whereon you bear the names of the children of Israel, pleading for them within the veil…. The preacher who neglects to pray much must be very careless about his ministry. He cannot have comprehended his calling. He cannot have computed the value of a soul, or estimated the meaning of eternity. He must be a mere official, tempted into a pulpit because the piece of bread which belongs to the priest’s office is very necessary to him, or a detestable hypocrite who loves the praise of men, and cares not for the praise of God.... He cannot be one of those who plough deep and reap abundant harvests. He is a mere loiterer, not a labourer. As a preacher he has a name to live and is dead. He limps in his life like the lame man in the Proverbs, whose legs were not equal, for his praying is shorter than his preaching.”
As we consider what Paul says, here we should be struck by the fact that prayer is not easy. If we are serious about prayer, we will soon discover that prayer is work. Prayer involves struggle and tears groaning because of the fallen world in which we live. One of my spiritual heroes is Robert Murray M’Cheyne. He was a pastor in Scotland from 1836-1843, who died shortly before he turned 30 yrs old. He saw true revival and began a missionary movement to the Arabic and Jewish people of Palestine. But more than anything else, M’Cheyne was a man of prayer. He believed that as a pastor, he was responsible for the spiritual condition of all the people in his town. In his biography you can read of him keeping a large plaid blanket by his bed. And on many a cold night, his wife would wake up to find him awake, wrapped up in his blanket, praying for the people in his town. Once she even found him face-down on the floor weeping for them in prayer. She urged to come back to bed, to which he said, “O woman, I have the souls of three thousand to answer for, and I know not how it is with many of them.”
So, how can we do this? Can how we cultivate that kind of passion. First, we have to ask God to give it to us! Such a love for people can only spring from the depths of God’s own love for sinful humanity. Second, and more practically, we simply need to start praying for people. Do not try to become a M’Cheyne over night; start small. The easiest way to do this is by developing some kind of a prayer list. That is, list out the people or events that you want to pray for on a regular basis. Then make some plan to pray for them.
One pastor – Derek Prime – keeps a list of people to pray for on a regular
basis and pulls it out right after his devotional time. He writes down a key thought from the passage, and then prays that thought for each of the names he covered that day. So for instance, if you read over 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” You may write down, ‘do not love the world,’ and make that your petition for everyone on your list for that day. You can pray through a couple people or families, mark where you ended and pick it up there the next day. In the end the method is not important. What is important, is finding some way of carving out regular time to spend with God praying for the people of church.
Lord, spiritually wearing the ephod and the breastplate whereon you bear the names of the children of Israel, pleading for them within the veil…. The preacher who neglects to pray much must be very careless about his ministry. He cannot have comprehended his calling. He cannot have computed the value of a soul, or estimated the meaning of eternity. He must be a mere official, tempted into a pulpit because the piece of bread which belongs to the priest’s office is very necessary to him, or a detestable hypocrite who loves the praise of men, and cares not for the praise of God.... He cannot be one of those who plough deep and reap abundant harvests. He is a mere loiterer, not a labourer. As a preacher he has a name to live and is dead. He limps in his life like the lame man in the Proverbs, whose legs were not equal, for his praying is shorter than his preaching.”
As we consider what Paul says, here we should be struck by the fact that prayer is not easy. If we are serious about prayer, we will soon discover that prayer is work. Prayer involves struggle and tears groaning because of the fallen world in which we live. One of my spiritual heroes is Robert Murray M’Cheyne. He was a pastor in Scotland from 1836-1843, who died shortly before he turned 30 yrs old. He saw true revival and began a missionary movement to the Arabic and Jewish people of Palestine. But more than anything else, M’Cheyne was a man of prayer. He believed that as a pastor, he was responsible for the spiritual condition of all the people in his town. In his biography you can read of him keeping a large plaid blanket by his bed. And on many a cold night, his wife would wake up to find him awake, wrapped up in his blanket, praying for the people in his town. Once she even found him face-down on the floor weeping for them in prayer. She urged to come back to bed, to which he said, “O woman, I have the souls of three thousand to answer for, and I know not how it is with many of them.”So, how can we do this? Can how we cultivate that kind of passion. First, we have to ask God to give it to us! Such a love for people can only spring from the depths of God’s own love for sinful humanity. Second, and more practically, we simply need to start praying for people. Do not try to become a M’Cheyne over night; start small. The easiest way to do this is by developing some kind of a prayer list. That is, list out the people or events that you want to pray for on a regular basis. Then make some plan to pray for them.
One pastor – Derek Prime – keeps a list of people to pray for on a regular
basis and pulls it out right after his devotional time. He writes down a key thought from the passage, and then prays that thought for each of the names he covered that day. So for instance, if you read over 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” You may write down, ‘do not love the world,’ and make that your petition for everyone on your list for that day. You can pray through a couple people or families, mark where you ended and pick it up there the next day. In the end the method is not important. What is important, is finding some way of carving out regular time to spend with God praying for the people of church. Paul sets the example for us in constantly praying for his brothers and sisters in Christ. Pastors should do the same. The pulpit ministry is vital, but not the totality of our ministry. Did not Jesus pray for us (John 17)? We must devote ourselves to praying for God's work in the lives of his people.
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