The Ministry of Prayer

[John Arnold]

Pastors have to pray more than other people because they are involved with more people than most. Paul said in Philippians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.”

 Years  ago my mind was filled with things to pray about but I couldn't make it happen. I thought to myself, “Much improvement needs to take place in this area. There is so much I don't know about prayer.” 

Bible study and sermon preparation were never a problem. I fell in love with the Bible when stationed at Perrin Air Force Base in Sherman, Texas, under the very able Bible teaching of Pastor Lloyd Ledbetter. But when praying, I had trouble keeping focused or sometimes I thought I was too busy to have a prayer time. 

Prayer must be a priority,  and mine needed to be revisited. This led me to begin journaling everything I had to say to God and making lists of things that needed Spiritual attention. This helped to keep  me on track and enabled me to have an up-to-date record of my ever growing list of things to communicate to God. 

Becoming a list pray-er opened up a whole new devotional horizon: “The best way to pray is to write it down.” By journaling, things started to come together and my prayer experience took on new dimensions. That age old statement, “You learn by doing” started to take on real meaning in the area of prayer.  

“First things need to be put first, and the first thing in the equipment of a minister is prayer.”

The Weapon of Prayer…E.M. Bounds

Be ready for the answer. Not long ago it dawned on me: ‘I’m praying all the time,” waking up in the middle of the night praying, and spontaneously praying throughout the day, and in addition, praying during those specific scheduled appointments.  It was then that I realized that one of the things I have prayed about for some time, which was to be an Ephesians 6:18 pray-er, was actually happening. “Praying always with all prayer.” When we pray about something so central to the will of God we have to be ready for the answer. I received an email from a missionary who was asking for help with prayer and I replied, “Ask God to make you the best pray-er you can be and He will do it.” He may have been looking for a more detailed response, but that is as simple as it gets when you pray about a sure thing.

Most ministers are pretty good at requesting things, appealing to God on behalf of people and projects, but many times that’s where it ends. That type of praying becomes wearisome without all kinds of prayer. The whole sphere of worship based prayer, praying the Scripture, confession, thanksgiving, fasting and prayer brings new life and excitement to prayer.

Prayer becomes a habit. We definitely  are creatures of habit. We drive to work each day by the same route and eat at the same restaurants. One paper published by a Duke University researcher found that more than forty percent of the actions people performed each day weren’t actual decisions, but habits. Prayer is a spiritual habit. I find myself each morning, first thing, headed to my prayer place to grow some more in prayer. 

I believe that people come to church to see the pastor grow spiritually and the pastor will grow only as He grows closer to God. Spiritual growth and prayer confidence will accelerate  dramatically when we are in communion with God. This type of growth and confidence is in desperate need in the lives of ministry leaders.

It’s amazing how things change when we put a spiritual prayer routine at the top of our priority list. I never dreamed that I would still be growing in prayer now some twenty five years after starting this practice.

“Praying is the most important thing in all the earth” “If prayer is put first, then God is put first and victory is insured.”  Prayer and Praying Men….E.M. Bounds

John