O Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, our only Mediator and Redeemer, You have been exalted to the right hand of the Father, and send pastors and teachers of Your Word [Eph. 4:11], by whose work You gather the Church among us unto Yourself. I humbly beg You, who are one true God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, that You guide those Your ministers in the way of truth, and turn the hearts of their hearers to the true obedience of faith. There is no occupation of human life, no class of men, which is so subject to the hatred and plots of Satan as the ecclesiastical ministry of the Word. Protect, therefore, the members of this ministry with the shield of grace, and furnish them with the strength of patience, so that Satan’s traps cannot trip them up.
Grant, I ask, to Your ministers the necessary knowledge and pious diligence in all doings, that they first learn from You before presuming to teach others [Jas. 3:1]. Govern and enlighten their hearts by Your Spirit so that in the place of God they preach nothing other than God’s Word; they shepherd the flock committed unto them [1 Pet. 5:2], purchased and redeemed by Your precious blood [Acts 20:28], out of true and sincere love and not out of covetousness or ambition; they shepherd the flock in thought, word, and deed; they shepherd by the prayer of their soul, by the exhortation of the Word, and by example; so that they follow in the footsteps of the one to whom the care of the Lord’s flock was commended three times [John 21:15]. Rouse them that they keep watch over the souls entrusted to them, since they shall give serious account for them in the severe examination of the last judgment [Heb. 13:17]. Whatever they advise in the preaching of the holy Word, may they first be diligent in this matter in their own lives, lest being sluggish to work themselves, they labor in vain to arouse others. To whatever good works they inflame others, may they themselves first be zealous in these works by the fervor of the Spirit. Before they resound with words of exhortation, may they first proclaim by their works, whatever they are about to speak. (Continued On Transfiguration) (from The Daily Exercise of Piety by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, p.81-83)