Prayerless Leader

By Becky Tirabassi in Sacred Obsession Devotional

"What sorrow awaits the leaders of my people-the shepherds of my sheep-for they have destroyed and scattered the very ones they were expected to care for," says the Lord. Jeremiah 23:1

In his classic book With Christ in the School of Prayer, Andrew Murray, a nineteenth-century South African church leader, asserted that the very core of a leader's life-his or her holiness-ability to run the long race of faith, or willingness to submit to the Holy Spirit is formed in prayer. He also believed that the devil works very strategically to keep a believer, especially the minister, from praying.

In February of 1984, I was an overworked youth worker who had no time for God. I read my Bible, not to hear His voice but to prepare a lesson. I didn't pray because I was too tired. I didn't even consider prayer a critical discipline in my life, primarily because I steered clear of most activities that required discipline!

They were startling realizations! I felt ashamed of myself. I had been given an awesome responsibility to shepherd hundreds of high school students-yet I rarely spent time in prayer with or for them.

These revelations prompted me to purchase a handful of Murray's books to glean more on prayer from one of the greatest Christian leaders of his century.

Murray was convinced that a prayerless leader is equally vulnerable to piety and perversion. He asserted that a prayerless leader cannot possess a robust, believing faith! And he was sure that no practice will reveal more of a person to God and more of God to that person than prayer.

In 1984, Murray convinced me, and I resolved to be a leader who prayed one hour a day for the rest of my life.