Our spiritual leaders or pastors, elders, and overseers are shepherds God has placed over us. Their jobs are never easy. They carry a tremendous burden and responsibility on their shoulders. They must lead, feed, and shepherd you, the entire congregation, or a particular group. Couple that with their responsibility to study God’s Word, be faithful to sound doctrine, devote themselves to prayer, and perform the administrative aspect of leading a church; indeed, you can see that their job is not easy. However, it is important to note that they do it out of delight since God has called for them. Still, their work is not without worry, and a simple prayer of gratitude for them would be much appreciated.
Heavenly Father, I thank You for the spiritual leaders that You have appointed over us. They could have been somewhere else, doing what they wanted to do, but they chose to obey with joy the noble call to lead and protect us. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
A Prayer of Gratitude for Our Spiritual Leaders
Why Pray for Our Spiritual Leaders, and What Can We Include in a Prayer of Gratitude for Them?
We pray for our spiritual leaders because, first, the Bible commands us to do so. In (1 Timothy 2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people), it is written that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving shall be made for all people. That means we are to invoke prayers of thanksgiving for our spiritual leaders. Also, Ephesians 6:18-19 tells us that we are to make supplications for all saints.
A Prayer of Gratitude for Our Spiritual Leaders
The Bible also gives certain commandments for how we should treat our spiritual leaders. In 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13, the apostle Paul exhorts the church in Thessalonica to respect those who labor among them and those who admonish them in the Lord. Paul exhorts them to highly esteem those people who do their work out of love. Paul was specifically talking about the spiritual leaders—those who worked hard to shepherd them. In fact, in (Hebrews 13:17 Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.), it is written that we are not to be unnecessary weight for our spiritual leaders. Rather, we are to obey and submit to them whom God has appointed over us.
A Prayer of Gratitude for Our Spiritual Leaders
In line with those scriptures, it is a given that we are to love the spiritual leaders that God has sent us. We do that because besides this being a command from our Lord Jesus Christ, we also see the toil our spiritual leaders endure (John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”). The Christlike thing to do is to bless them, help them, be kind to them, and offer them all the acts of love that we can, including praying for them and their well-being. Another kind of prayer that we can pray, however, is a prayer of thanksgiving for them, which shows our appreciation for their time and effort.
A Prayer of Gratitude for Our Spiritual Leaders
A prayer of thanksgiving for your spiritual leaders is one in which you thank God for the specific things you appreciate. As you dive deeper into why you thank God for them, you may realize, for instance, the clarity and wisdom that a certain spiritual leader has been giving you in your counseling sessions.
How Can I Say a Prayer of Gratitude for Our Spiritual Leaders?
You can pray a prayer of gratitude either on your own or by approaching your spiritual leader/s. In your personal time with God, you can thank Him for the spiritual leaders He has given you and the Church. You can thank God for the specific work of each of those spiritual leaders who have blessed the congregation. Is it their wisdom? Their gift of teaching that makes you understand complex biblical doctrines? Is it a leader’s preaching that always convicts you?
As mentioned in the previous section, you thank God for your spiritual leaders by pointing out things about them you feel blessed with and thank God for. With that, you can also approach your spiritual leader/s and ask them if you can pray a simple prayer of thanksgiving for them. That would both show your appreciation of their work and thank God for what they have blessed you with.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the life of my pastor. Thank You because he could have just continued in his profession and not gone out of his comfort zone. Yet, he obeyed the call joyfully and became our pastor. Thank You for Your grace that is at work in him. His wisdom and preaching have greatly blessed me whenever we talk in our times together and when I listen to his preachings. May You continue to cause him to bear more fruit in the work that he does. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
As you thank God and show appreciation for your spiritual leaders, pray a prayer of blessing to them as well. What blessing you pray for them is up to you—you can pray that their work bears even more fruit, spiritual protection over them, comfort and strength, and many more blessings. Remember that as you pray a prayer of thanksgiving for your spiritual leaders, you do it from the standpoint of love.