Blessing - Leadership Prayers
Blessing
I need your blessing, Father. Show me that I really matter to you.
The Lord’s blessing is our greatest wealth. Proverbs 10:22, TLB
Does God really care about our efforts? The leader seeks to influence the organization to significant achievement, but above all the leader seeks assurance of God’s blessing, with or without other measures of success.
THE BEST I can offer you, God, is the excellence of my work—my sincere worship. But you are perfect, and my best is still shabby next to your work. I do not deserve your favor, God. I cannot earn your blessing on my work, my life, or this organization, no matter how good I am. Still, my heart longs to present love gifts you will cherish, and I desire your blessing.
What I am doing seems important to many, but human praise can fool me. Oh, God, do not abandon me to live on human blessing alone and miss your blessing. Help me to know the difference between success and blessing.
What matters to me is whether I really matter to you. Is this the most important thing I am supposed to be doing? Am I moving in the right direction? Am I doing it in a way that pleases you? My work adds nothing to your blessing, but your blessing means everything to my work.
I know that not all your blessings are pleasant. If I am not leading this organization on the right course, then bless me with a sign of redirection, no matter how tough that blessing has to be. I will accept it as your true and loving favor poured out on me and those I lead.
Make me a means of your grace to the people I lead—a blessing from you to them. Do not let anything about me or what I do disrupt the flow of your blessing to them. Do not let me prevent your blessing on this organization by being or doing anything that dishonors your name.
Let me know your special favor, whether in your pleasant blessings or in the unpleasant ones. No matter what I may think of myself or what others may say . . .
I want your best for me and this organization. But what if this fails?
Show me that I really do matter to you. I need your blessing, Father.
Reflections
A pastor friend told how, when he was a boy, a particular uncle would sometimes place his giant hand on the boy’s head and lovingly rough up his hair. It was a silent blessing that was so cherished that my friend remembers sliding near in hopes of the special attention. The man’s touch told the boy that he was noticed and that he mattered. A lifetime later, the blessing still worked its affirming ministry.
On homecoming weekend I attended a reunion luncheon of the alumni who had graduated in the very first years of the school’s half century of operation. I listened to reminiscences and said a few presidential words.
The next week the organizer visited my office. Her gratitude was simply stated. “Thank you for blessing us. You made us feel like we still matter.”
We all search for meaning in life, the sense of God’s pleasure in who we are and what we do, the shimmer of God’s blessing. In organizations or movements it can come in divers ways, but always it must be able to come through the leader. Whether in a committee or a nation, wise followers must choose leaders through whom God can bless them.
The heavenly Father touched his Son and told the world, “You are my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with you” (Luke 3:22). Even the Son of God needed blessing. Without it, nothing else matters. With it, no miracle is impossible.
