There’s power in prayer. The best leaders know this. They know that there’s a Heavenly Father who loves, cares for, and listens to them.
You won’t always know what to do when a leadership challenge rears its ugly head. There are questions that race through your mind. You might even think there’s no way through this challenge.
You’d be wrong. There’s always someone there for you.
That person? God.
Photo by Jack Sharp on Unsplash
You can talk to the creator of the universe. He will listen. He will also answer.
I’ve found solace in my prayers to God, even the prayers I feel went unanswered. I believe God hears me and creates pathways for me.
He can do the same for you.
5 Ways Praying For Wisdom And Guidance In Leadership Helps
But how does praying actually help you? Can it make you a better leader? Can it give you peace? Can it make a way when things are dark?
Yes, to all of these things. Here are 5 ways praying for wisdom and guidance in leadership helps you.
1. Prayer offers comfort:
In difficult times, we feel like we’re in a rough sea. The world is challenging us. So are our people. We don’t know what to do.
I say go to God in prayer. He will give you comfort.
Something is comforting in praying. You can pray a single word over and over again that allows God to bring your mind back into focus. You can spew all of your troubles and free your mind from holding the anguish and pain you’ve carried by thinking about them. Or you can ask for wisdom and God may impart it to you.
All of these things bring comfort to a hurting leader.
2. Prayer gives divine insight:
Not everyone believes in God, but I do. I hope you do as well.
When praying for wisdom, God can give you divine insight into your next steps. I’ve had it happen to me over big and little things. It may be as simple as asking God where your car keys are, and boom, there they are. Or, it might be asking God how to handle a difficult client.
You begin to see a vision of the conversation you will have with the client. God helps you walk through the challenging conversation to an equitable outcome.
God will give you divine insight as you pray.
3. Prayer creates routine:
Some people are opposed to routine prayer. I find routine prayers comforting. To continue to pray the same thing daily brings a sense of rhythm and peace.
Your routine prayer may be a prayer of blessing every morning or a prayer for protection at night. It may even include a prayer over your day and the day of those you lead.
Find a prayer that speaks to you and is honoring to God. Maybe you ask a question or two, as Bob Beaudine recommends in his book 2 Chairs.
These routine prayers or questions can give you new insight as God answers them freshly each time. You’d be surprised at how the answers to your routine prayers can change with new prayers.
4. Prayer develops resilience:
I’ve prayed for things in my life that have never come to fruition. Did I stop praying because of this? No.
You’ve probably prayed for situations in your life that required you to pray again and again and again. The answer never seems to come, but you continue to pray.
There’s a reason behind this. It’s to help us develop resilience and trust. Luke 18:1 tells us that “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to them that they should always pray and not give up.”
This is resilience developing in your heart and mind. Continue to pray for it develops resilience in you!
5. Prayer helps you understand it’s not about you:
Leaders can get a twisted sense of leadership. Because people rely on you, you begin to think that you’re the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega. You’re not.
Prayer helps a leader understand there’s something more out there. They are not the ultimate leader. There’s a greater leader available.
Let prayer remind you that you’re not the biggest, best, or greatest leader there is. That distinction belongs to God.
