FOLLOW THE LEADERof the perpetual prayerlessness of my own life and leadership! My lifelong
struggle is to substitute doing for being. It is my besetting sin to spend
the majority of my time in “doing things for God” – rather than just
“spending time with Him.” Like many other Christian leaders, I am far
better at public prayer than I am at private prayer. I write this final chapter
as another reminder to me of the vital importance of prayer for my life
and leadership!
“I have so much business I cannot get along
without spending three hours daily in prayer.”^1
(Martin Luther)To begin, we need to remind ourselves that the supreme example of
prayer in the life of a leader was the Lord Jesus. Unquestionably, He
was the greatest leader of men and women the world has ever seen!
No other life has had the universal, sustained, transforming impact that
Christ has. He has had that impact without doing many of the things that
we normally associate with great leadership. Could it be that His prayer
life is what made the difference? The answer is obvious. If Christ’s life
and leadership needed to be bathed in prayer – how much more does
mine need it! As Oswald Sanders pointed out, Christ’s life is the perfect
example of a life totally lived in prayer.
The Christian leader who seeks an example to follow does well
to turn to the life of Jesus Himself. Our belief in the necessity
of prayer comes from observing His life. Surely if anyone could
have sustained life without prayer, it would be the very Son of
God Himself. If prayer is silly or unnecessary, Jesus would not
have wasted His time at it. But wait! Prayer was the dominant
feature of His life and recurring part of His teaching. Prayer
kept His moral vision sharp and clear. Prayer gave Him courage
to endure the perfect but painful will of His Father. Prayer paved
the way for the transfiguration. To Jesus, prayer was not a hasty
add-on, but a joyous necessity.^2We see this same passion for prayer in the life of the Apostle Paul – and in
Epapharas, one of Paul’s closest prayer partners.
Paul made clear that true prayer is not dreamy reverie...