CHAPTER 5
Lord, may I never strike at leaders, but may I rather encourage & exhort them, as a father, & also do this to younger men as my brothers.
Female leaders are to be treated as mothers & I must treat younger women as sisters, with my thoughts, speech & actions being pure.
Remind me to honour true widows.
If I have parents or grand parents in need, enable me to provide for them as is acceptable in Your sight God.
As a real widow, left alone, I place my hope on God, telling You Lord what I need, devoting myself to You & entrusting myself to Your power, every night & every day.
I do not want to be engrossed in my own pleasure, for that is a dead end street.
I accept these commands Lord, help me to be without blame.
Help me Lord to provide for my own family, those in my house.
May I never deny the divinely implanted principles of faith; that would make me worse than an unbeliever.
As a widow under sixty I will not seek assistance.
If I am a widow, I ask for Your help & strength so that I can do good works, bring up children, be hospitable to strangers, wash the saints feet, give aid to the troubled & apply myself to follow every good work.
As a young widow, guide me on whether I should follow Christ totally or should I remarry?
Guard me & guide me so that I do not do the wrong thing; I put my trust in You Lord.
May I never become negative, wandering from house to house, babbling & meddling in other peoples business, speaking for the sake of speaking, not paying attention to what I say.
As a young woman, I ask You Lord to help me find the right husband, to get married, have & raise children, run my household, not giving any starting point to the adversary to abuse me.
May I never turn aside & follow after satan.
Lord, if I have any widows in my family, help me to aid them, may I not let the church be burdened by my family. May I also help the church to aid true widows.
As an elder or a leader may I stand before those I lead with care & diligence. To those leaders who do lead in this manner, let me give them double honour, especially those who labour in preaching & teaching the word of God.
Deuteronomy 25: 4 says “You must not muzzle or hinder the ox that is working on the corn, to get the best out of it.” Jesus said in Matthew 10: 10 “The labourer is worthy of his pay.”
Let me never accept or even listen to any charge or accusation of any elder, except if there are at least two or three witnesses to the charge.
If I have missed the mark, hep me to accept my correction, even in front of other leaders, so they too may learn from my experience.
I want to obey & guard these principles earnestly in Your sight God & my Lord Jesus Christ, as well as in the sight of the angels.
Help me to observe these without prejudging & apart from prejudice, to not be inclined toward prejudice or prejudgement.
Remind me not to lay hands on any one without sufficient testing.
Remind me & protect me from other peoples moral sins, in thought, word or deed.
Help me to never send unfit men into the ministry.
Help me to take care of my physical health.
Help me to live correctly at all times Lord, especially when under pressure or testing.
May Your life be evident in me always, may people see & know by all I do, say or think, that Jesus is Lord of my life; my entire life.