Prayer

Pray night and day.
Pray when you are happy
And pray when you are sad.
Pray with fear and trembling,
And with a watchful and vigilant mind,
That your prayer might be acceptable to the Lord;
For as scripture says:
“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their appeal.”

Theodoros the Ascetic

The greatest discipline for the spiritual leader has to be stopping to pray. Prayer requires listening and, in the same way that we would offend a person by beginning a conversation by not listening, we offend God if we do not listen.

It is hard to stop in the “tyranny of the urgent” but the fool gives way to emotion, distraction, foolish words and more by not stopping to listen. Spiritual leaders were empty and void before Christ and, without hearing,our direction is empty and void still today.

We must stop and prepare if we are to lead.