Why bother praying for your leaders?

Over the last 6 months or so I've come across a significant number of people involved in Christian ministry who are struggling with significant debilitating long term health issues.  Not just the ordinary run of the mill minor illnesses but ones which make their ministry increasingly difficult and which place limits on them well below their previous capacity.  Now there are potentially a number of reasons for this.

It could just be that they have burnt themselves out by working too hard and too fast for too long.  That is a very real issue in Christian ministry and for those involved in it.  And those who lead alongside them and the fellowship or organisation that has a duty of care to those ministers needs to ask the question is this the result of overwork?  If so the remedy may seem easy but it is rarely so because ministry cannot be confined to work hours because it involves people.  But steps must be taken to ensure those in ministry feel sufficiently resourced to carry out their ministry and sufficiently rested (days off and holidays) to enable long term sustained ministry without burn out.

I wonder if the other significant reason is one that we tend to overlook; spiritual warfare.  The christian life is a spiritual battle, Peter writes "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."  He's not a tame tabby or a feral but small stray, he is a lion on the hunt, a real threat.  We tend to live in the mundane and forget the spiritual reality that rages around us.  Revelation lifts the curtain and gives us a peak at that cosmic battle and our part in it, but then the curtain drops and we're back to the everyday.  But despite appearances that battle still rages, and at times Satan strikes at God's people with illness.

So we need to live and pray aware of that spiritual reality.  Aware of our enemy, but amazed at the opportunity to come to the only all-powerful sovereign God who we call Father and ask him to protect and shield those he has called to be set aside to bring the gospel to us and shepherd us.