Monday, November 2Leadership
I Have Prayed for Thee
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
DevotionalMonday, November 2
Or read it here
Why do I like the people I lead less than I did when I started?
Nobody says it in the staff meeting. It lives lower than that. You used to drive across town for the kid who missed his appointment. Now his name on your phone makes your jaw set. You used to pray for your team. Now you mostly describe them, to the friend who gets it and to yourself in the shower, and each description runs a little shorter and colder than the last.
Stay there a minute. The mind is a careful clerk. Once it decides who someone is, it files every missed call as proof and quietly loses the evidence that points the other way. Give it a year and you can lead people you no longer love, well enough that nobody notices. Except you, at 2 a.m. when you realize you have talked about them for months and have not talked to God about them once.
Now look at the table in Luke 22. They have just taken the bread and the cup, and the disciples start arguing over who ranks highest. Jesus knows what is coming. One will sell him before morning, and the rest will scatter. He tells them, “I am among you as he that serveth” (v. 27). Then he turns to one man.
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.
The old English keeps what the Greek holds and modern English flattens. The first you is plural. Satan wants all of them. The thee is singular. Jesus has already prayed for Peter, by name, before the denial, knowing every word of it. He names the sin in the next breath. He will not let what he knows about Peter shrink what he will do for him. Then he walks from that table to a garden and a cross, and dies for the men who ran. He rose, and he still intercedes (Romans 8:34). For you too, the tired one keeping the file.
So this is the order in the kingdom. You are first a prayed-for failure. Only after that do you strengthen anyone. And it is hard to keep praying for someone by name while you keep despising them. The Spirit will not let both live in you for long.
The same coldness runs through whole systems: the docket that shrinks a young person to a charge, the case note that stopped expecting change. Somebody in that room has to remember he is a thee.
Start with the name that makes your jaw set.
Pray
Lord Jesus, I have grown cold toward people you put in my care. I talk about them more than I pray for them. I keep a record of their failures and call it discernment. Forgive me. You sat at a table with men who were about to abandon you, and you served them and prayed for them by name. You did that for me before I ever failed you, and you are praying for me now. Holy Spirit, put that love back in me. Give me back the names I have turned into problems, and teach me to strengthen the ones I lead. Amen.
Practice
Write down the name of the one person you lead whose name makes your jaw set, and pray for them specifically for five minutes before you mention them to anyone else today. Then do one small thing for them that they will not see coming.
Carry
Pray for them by name before you describe them to anyone.