18. Pray for your spiritual leaders

Last week we saw how caring David was. He arranged with the king of Moab that his parents can stay there so that they will be safe and looked after whilst Saul was searching for him. It is heartwarming to see how he cared for his parents, just as God wants us to.

David then listened to the prophecy of Gad that he shouldn't stay in the stronghold, but that he should depart for Judah. He was obedient and went to the forest of Hereth. Saul then heard that David and his men were there. He then stirred up his servants, especially his servants from the tribe of Benjamin that he was also from, that David was the enemy. And it was here that Saul did an evil thing. Doeg, the Edomite split on David and told Saul that he went to Ahimelech at Nob when he fled from Saul. So Saul called Ahimelech and all the other priests to come to him. He interrogated them insinuating that they were conspiring against him with David. They didn't know what he was talking about as David never shared the truth with them. It was then that Saul did a horrible thing. He ordered that all 85 of the priests be murdered. He even went further and ordered that the whole city of Nob be struck with the edge of the sword, men, women, children, oxen, donkeys, sheep, everything. He ordered the massacre of innocent people, all because he was jealous of David.

We should never allow jealousy to become so out of control. Many, many people are in jail today due to jealousy. Many murders have been committed due to the ugly head of jealousy rearing its head. We should never allow it to fester and to grow so big, driving us to do inhumane things.

The other lesson that I believe that we can learn here is that God's leaders can so easily come under attack. They are easy targets because they are elevated at church, but we should never allow that to happen. Even if we don't agree with our leaders at church, we should never bad mouth them, never spread lies about them and never belittle them. God doesn't take kindly to His men and women being attacked.

I know spiritual leaders can let us down and I know they can make mistakes. But it is not our job to judge them, let alone attack them or gossip about them. If they are preaching things that are contrary to the Word of God we need to have conversations with them and share our perspective with them. And if we cannot come to an agreement we can leave the church if we truly do not agree with their doctrine. There are many avenues to follow. But publically attacking them or discrediting them is not the way.

I know some spiritual leaders are there merely for their own personal gain, but I believe most are there because of their heart for God and we need to honor that. The leaders of the early church were violently persecuted, but they continued due to the fire for Christ that they had within them. Their members prayed for them and it pulled them through on many occasions. Today we need to pray for our leaders too. They need our prayers, our encouragement and our love. We need to lift them up and help them to keep on standing. Just like Aaron and Joshua kept up Moses's arms. Everyone gets tired now and again. An encouraging word might be all that they need today.

Father we pray for our spiritual leaders. We pray that You will keep them standing. We pray for supernatural courage and strength to continue with their all-important work. We are sorry that we so quickly criticize them, instead of lifting them up. Give us the wisdom and the right words to say. Amen

1 comment for “18. Pray for your spiritual leaders”

  1. Gravatar of HenriHenri
    Posted Sunday, 23 February 2020 at 4:33:12 PM

    It is a biblical instruction to pray for our leaders.To pray that in their decision making they apply the righteousness of God.

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